Look After You
by Miss E Charlotte
Summary: Jillian and Isaac, as well as her cousin Erica, were inseparable growing up until Jillian and her parents moved from Beacon Hills, but now six years later, Jillian is back in town and starting to feel something for her old childhood friend Isaac as well as getting attention from her old crush Jackson. How will she deal with her love life and later werewolves?
1. It's Good To Be Back

_**Chapter One - It's Good To Be Back  
**_

Jillian Bennet stepped out of the car and smiled as she glanced around the familiar neighborhood. She didn't realize how much she had missed Beacon Hills until she was back in it. She and her parents, Thomas and Diana, as well as her older brother, Sam, use to live there until she was ten, then after Sam left town for college, she and her parents moved cause of her father's promotion.

She did get to spend a couple of summers there while she stayed with her cousin Erica Reyes, but spending a couple of months wasn't enough for her. She loved Beacon Hills and had been wishing for the day she was back in it for good and now her wish was coming true.

Thanks to another promotion her father was now being transferred overseas for at least a year, maybe longer, and after a lot of begging and pleading Jillian was finally able to talk her parents into letting her move in with Erica and her mother Amy.

Jillian turned around to look at the small two-story house when she heard the front door open and the sounds of footsteps coming toward her. She grinned when she saw it was Erica running toward her with her arms out beside her.

"Jilly Bean!" Erica called out happily, as she rushed forward and engulfed her cousin in a huge hug.

Jillian chuckled at the childhood nickname, there wasn't many people she allowed to call her that, but Erica was definitely one of them.

"I am so so happy that you are here." Erica added, as she stepped back to end the hug.

"Me too. I've missed you and this town so much." Jillian said with a huge smile on her face.

"I still can't believe you are actually here. I keep thinking this is just a dream or something." Erica said, smiling.

"I know me too. When mom and dad finally agreed to let me come here I screamed so loud I thought I was going to pass out." Jillian said with a laugh.

"Me too!" Erica called out excitedly.

As the two girls squealed out happily while jumping up and down, Diana called out to Jillian, telling her to come say bye to her and her father before their cab arrived to take them to the airport, they were leaving their car behind for her to drive around while they were gone.

Jillian and Erica linked arms as they walked over to the adults. Jillian hugged her parents, wishing them a safe trip and telling them she would miss them, then she stood side by side with Erica and her mother as she watched her parents get into a cab and drive away.

Once their cab was gone, Jillian, Erica and her mom grabbed all the bags from the car and carried them inside. While Jillian and Erica continued to carry the bags upstairs into Erica's bedroom, her mom, Amy, went into her room to get dressed for work. She taught a couple of night classes at the local college several nights a week.

"When we found out you were staying with us, me and mom started working on turning the attic into a spare room for you to sleep in but it's not finished yet which means you'll have to sleep in my room till it's done." Erica explained, as she laid the suitcase on her bed.

"That's fine." Jillian said, as she dropped the bags she was carrying on the floor.

"I had suggested we just put you in the spare room but mom is still sleeping in it since dad left." Erica explained.

Several months ago Erica's father, Jon, had left her mom for another woman and as expected she wasn't dealing well with it at all and couldn't stand to even step into the room the two use to share.

"Then I suggested we just fix up her old bedroom but she bit my head off for even thinking that." Erica added,"so we decided on the attic, which is weird I know, but it's going to look really great once we are done."

"Erica, seriously, it's ok. You don't have to explain." Jillian said, then added,"besides I don't mind where I sleep, I'm just happy to be here."

"Me too. This school year is going to be so much better now that you are here." Erica said, as a pained expression came across her face. She wasn't very popular at school. Actually she wasn't popular at all and basically had no friends. No one ever really noticed her except for the few traumatic times she had a seizure in the middle of class causing her classmates to make fun of her worst than before.

"How is school going so far?" Jillian asked with a concern expression. She knew all about the troubles Erica had at Beacon Hills High.

The pained look quickly went away as Erica flashed her a fake smile then said,"it's going great. I think this year is going to be best yet."

"I think so too." Jillian said smiling back and hoping her statement was true. All she ever wanted was the best for her cousin.

Before either girl could say anything else, they heard a light knock on the bedroom door, followed by Erica's mom poking her head inside as she smiled at the two girls.

"Hey are you getting settled in ok?" Amy asked, as she looked over at Jillian.

Jillian nodded her head then said,"I am. Thanks again for letting me come stay here Aunt Amy."

"You are very welcome. I think this will be good for both of you." Amy said,"I know you both have really missed each other."

After both girls smiled and nodded in agreement, Amy added,"well I hate I have to leave on your first night here, but it'll give you two a chance to catch up."

"Sounds great." Jillian said.

Erica nodded her head then suggested,"hey we can watch movies and pig out on junk food like we use to."

"Yeah!" Jillian said, then added excitedly,"ooh do you still have that big air mattress?"

"Yeah, it's in my closet." Erica said,"I'll grab that while you grab all the pillows and blankets from my bed then we'll change into our pajamas and take everything downstairs."

Amy laughed at how excited both girls were, she had not seen her daughter this excited in awhile, but as a mother she had to say,"ok you two can have a slumber party-slash-movie night but don't forget to do your homework ok? I know you have all weekend to do it but I don't want you slacking on it. Erica did you hear me?"

"Yeah mom, I heard you." Erica called out, as she dug around in her closet until she finally found the air mattress.

"Also I do not want you two only eating junk food for dinner, I will leave money to order something to eat ok?"

"Ok." Both girls called out, as they begin to pull out their most comfortable pajamas to change into. For Erica that meant a pair of dark colored sweatpants and a old mickey mouse t-shirt and for Jillian a pair of pink shorts with white hearts and a white oversized t-shirt that had the word 'love' wrote across it with a heart.

"Oh also don't forget you have a doctors appointment tomorrow afternoon ok?" Amy called out to her daughter.

"I remember." Erica said back.

"Jillian, you are more than welcomed to join us." Amy suggested, then added,"then afterwards we can all grab a late lunch and maybe do a little shopping for your new bedroom?"

"Yeah I would love to go." Jillian said back.

"Great. Well you two girls have fun tonight." Amy said, as she waved to the two girls before leaving the room.

Once she was gone, Jillian and Erica quickly changed into their pajamas then begin to gather up all the pillows, blankets and the air mattress. They were about to leave the bedroom when they heard the doorbell ringing downstairs.

Jillian looked over at Erica with a confused expression as she asked,"are you expecting anyone?"

Erica snorted then said,"yeah right. No one ever visits me. It must be for you."

"No one knows I'm back in town yet. I haven't told anyone." Jillian said confused, then asked,"have you?"

"I might have told one person." Erica said smiling.

Jillian opened her mouth to ask who but before she could they heard Amy call out that they had company. Jillian handed everything over to Erica then made her way toward the stairs to walk down them. She squealed out happily when she saw Isaac at the door. She called out his name as she ran down the stairs and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as she hugged him tight.

"Oh, my God, I missed you so so much." Jillian called out, as she hugged her childhood best friend.

"I missed you too, Jilly B." Isaac said, as he hugged her back, happy to have her in his arms again.

Jillian laughed at the nickname he had always called her, it was a simple nickname but she had really missed hearing it. She had really missed him. The two use to be neighbors and best friends until she moved away. They kept in touch the best they could and anytime she did visit Erica in the past they would hang out, but it had been three long years since she had last seen him.

As soon as her feet were back on the ground, she checked him out and the first thing she noticed was how tall he was now. Apparently in the last few years he had hit a growth spurt. They use to be around the same height but now he was several inches taller than her.

"Look at you! You're so tall now." Jillian exclaimed, then added,"and you thought you would never get taller. I told you it would happen."

Isaac chuckled as he remember all the time he would whine about being so short when they were younger. He couldn't wait to be as tall as his big brother.

"Me? Look at you. You are... I mean, you uh.. you look.." Isaac begin to stutter, as he openly checked her out. He always thought she was cute growing up, which was one of the many reasons he had such a huge crush on her, but now, now she took his breath away.

Her blonde hair was a lot longer than it use to be and she was also a lot curvy since the last time he saw her, but the biggest change was the lack of glasses on her face, making her beautiful brown eyes a lot more noticeable.

"I hope the ends of these sentences are good." Jillian teased when she noticed he had a hard time finishing a sentence.

"No, yeah, they are. I just mean you look... you look different." Isaac said, then quickly added when he saw the look on her face,"good different. You look good different. You uh... you don't have your glasses anymore."

"Yeah." Jillian said, as she subconsciously reached up to push her glasses back only to realize they were gone. "I finally talked mom into letting me get contacts last year. I'm still trying to get use to them though, but I do like them." She added.

"That's good." Isaac said, as he checked her out again then quickly looked away before she caught him.

"Ok, I am leaving now." Amy called out, as she walked out of the kitchen holding her dinner for that night. "I left money on the counter for you girls. Isaac you are welcomed to hang out but no spending the night. I'm not going to be one of those moms on those pregnant teen shows."

"Mom!" Erica called out, feeling embarrassed.

"What?" Amy asked innocently, then added,"I know you all are just friends but ..."

"Mom, please stop." Erica groaned, as she pushed her mom toward the front door.

Amy wished them all a good night then made her way toward her car to go to work. Once she was gone, Erica shut the front door then walked back into the living room to get the air mattress set up.

"I actually wasn't planning on staying. I just wanted to say 'hey'." Isaac said.

"What? You're not staying? Why?" Jillian asked, as she begin to pout.

"Well I just figured you two wanted to be alone to catch up. I don't want to interrupt." Isaac explained.

"You won't be interrupting. We would love for you to stay, right Erica?" Jillian asked, as she looked over at her cousin.

Erica looked in between Jillian and Isaac and smiled at the way they were looking at each, then said honestly,"yeah, you should stay Isaac."

"See!" Jillian called out, then asked with a pout,"so are you staying?"

"Yeah, I'll stay." Isaac said, then laughed when she cheered out happily and hugged him. He couldn't help but smile back when she flashed him her dimpled smile, he had really missed that smile.

"Ok, bed is ready!" Erica called out once the air mattress was blown up. She tossed a few pillows on the it for them to lay on as well as several blankets to keep them warm, especially Jillian who always seemed to get cold a lot easier than them.

"Come on." Jillian said to Isaac, as she grabbed his hand and pulled him into the living room to join Erica.

"What movie should we watch first?" Erica asked them.

"Doesn't matter to me." Isaac said with a shrug.

"Actually the better question is what kind of snacks do we have?" Jillian asked, as she took a few steps backwards toward the kitchen.

"Oh and we need to decide what we're going to order for dinner." Erica added, as she looked at Jillian and Isaac.

"Pizza works for me." Isaac suggested.

"Is pepperoni ok?" Erica asked, as she grabbed the phone to call it in.

Jillian and Isaac nodded their head as they turned and open the cabinet doors to look for snacks during the movie. Jillian gasp in surprise when she saw popcorn and a box of junior mints. Isaac looked over at her, wondering what was wrong with her until he saw her grab the popcorn and candy. He knew how much she loved both and was glad to see that had not changed. He was worried in the last few years since he last saw her that she might not be the same girl he grew up with but just in the short time he had been around her he could tell she was still the same Jillian. The same Jillian he had fell in love with so many years ago.

"You have popcorn and junior mints. This night just go even better." Jillian said happily, as she held them in her hands and did a little happy dance. Isaac chuckled as he watched her, another thing that had not changed, she was still a terrible dancer.

"Of course. I remembered how much you loved them, so when me and mom went grocery shopping I made sure to grab some for you." Erica said, then added,"we also picked up some of your other favorite foods too."

"Aw! Have I mentioned lately how much I love you?" Jillian joked, as she hugged her cousin.

Erica laughed as she hugged her back then said,"well we just want you to be comfortable here. This is your home now and we want you to feel like it is your home."

"Your house has always been like my second home and I am so happy to be here." Jillian said back with a smile.

"I'm happy you're here too." Isaac called out from across the room, as he tossed a few m&m's in to his mouth.

The two girls laughed as they turned to look at him. Jillian shook her head when she saw him eat a few more pieces of candy before saying,"of course he would find the m&m's."

"I remember how much he loves them and figured he would be over here a lot now so I made sure to grab some." Erica explained.

"Thanks." Isaac called out with his mouth full of candy.

When Jillian saw him toss a few more pieces in his mouth, she pointed at him as she called out,"hey, don't eat them all. I like m&m's too."

"You have your candy. These are mine." Isaac said back, making her think he wasn't going to share.

"Don't make me come over there." Jillian playfully threatened.

"Bring it on Jilly. I'm taller than you now, I can take you on." Isaac joked back.

Erica laughed as she watched them playfully argue then said,"well, while you two fight over that, I'm going to go pick out a movie."

After Erica left the room, Jillian leaned back against the counter and watched Isaac as he continued to eat more candy without offering her one. She folded her arms across her chest then asked,"are you really not going to share those?"

"Oh I'm sorry, did you really want one?" Isaac asked. He pulled out a brown m&m and held it out as he asked,"is this what you want?"

"Well not that one. You know I love the blue ones." Jillian pointed out.

"Right, how could I forget." Isaac said, as he ate the brown one then pulled out a blue one for her.

Jillian smiled as she walked across the room to take the piece of candy from him. She was almost in front of him when he grinned back and popped the piece of candy into his mouth, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"You are so mean." Jillian pouted.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I couldn't help it." Isaac said with a laugh, as he held out another blue m&m for her.

"Thank you." Jillian said, as she leaned forward to eat the m&m right out of his hand as he held it out to her but before she could he tossed that one into his mouth as well.

"Isaac!" Jillian called out, as she tried to grab the bag from his other hand to take them away from him but wasn't all that surprise when he held it over her head where she couldn't reach it.

She jumped up to try to grab it but each time she tried he would raise it up higher, causing him to laugh harder and harder every time he made her jump. When she realized that wasn't going to work she jumped on him, wrapping her legs around his waist and reached up to try to grab the bag. Isaac wrapped a arm around her to keep her from falling and laughed out loud at how hard she was trying to steal the bag from him.

Believe it or not things like this is what they use to do all the time growing up. He would tease her and try to hold something over her, only back then she was able to take it from him since they were around the same height, but now that he was taller he had a advantage over her or at least he did until she jumped on him. Although he had to admit he didn't mind it at all. He loved having her so close to him.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the look on her face. She was biting her bottom lip, like she always did when she was concentrating on something. He could have easily continued to keep her from grabbing the bag, but he couldn't stand to keep it away from her any longer. He dropped his arm down a little, giving her a better change to grab it, which she did.

"Ha! Got it!" Jillian called out happily, as she held the bag in her hand.

Isaac playfully groaned, pretending like he was bummed that she took the bag from him, as she lowered her head to look at him with a smile on her face. She softly gasped when she noticed for the first time how close their faces were to each other. She nervously bit her bottom lip as he stared into her eyes with a look she had never seen coming from him before.

It was a look she had seen on other guys, but never from her very best friend Isaac. What confused her even more though was the small fluttering feeling she felt in her stomach. That was definitely something that had never happened before. With other guys yes, but with Isaac? Never.

The two continued to look at each other, she was still wrapped around him and was suddenly aware of his arms wrapped around her to hold her in place. She was still confused on the new feeling she was experiencing, but maybe it was just she was so happy to be back in town and happy to see him that her body was reacting to that. That had to be the reason right?

Before she could think about it any longer, they heard the doorbell, causing them both to jump in surprise. She slide down and placed her feet back on the floor right as Erica walked into the kitchen to announcing that the pizza was here.

Jillian quickly offered to grab the drinks while they went into the living room. She took her time grabbing three cans of soda from the refrigerator, just needing a moment alone. She still had no idea what just happened but knew something like that couldn't happen again. She and Isaac were just friends and had always been just friends. That's the way it was suppose to always be, right?

A few movies and many slices later, the three teens were laid on the air mattress, feeling tired and very full. Isaac was laid on one side of the mattress on his back, Jillian was laid across it on her back with her head resting on his stomach, while Erica was laid on the other side on her stomach.

As the latest movie played in the background, the three begin to catch up, Isaac and Erica telling Jillian how school has been lately. Jillian told them how boring her old town and school was, she told them again how happy she was to be back with them. To her it felt like no time had passed at all.

They continued to talk until the movie ended, then Erica put in one more movie, a movie she said they would all love. It was a video of home movies when they were younger. Jillian giggled at how young and cute they were as they watched their younger selves run around and play. She felt Isaac tense up when his brother, Camden, appeared on the tv. She reached up to lightly rub his stomach, hoping to comfort him. She knew how upsetting it was for him when he lost him years ago.

She softly smiled when she heard him chuckle at the screen as they watched his brother and her brother, Sam, chase them around and try to scare them which is something the two older boys use to do often. Camden and Sam were always pranking them and scaring them, like the time they took them to the cemetery to 'ghost hunt' and ended up hiding behind tombstones to scare their younger siblings.

Erica looked away from the tv and glanced over at them with a small smile on her face. She had always hoped Isaac and her cousin would get together, she knew they would be good for each other, they were always so comfortable around each other and could tell each other anything. Jillian had told her about some of the guys she had dated after she moved, she always talked about how nice they were and how she did like them but she never really connected with any of them, but Erica knew Jillian and Isaac were connected. The two have been bonded since they were born and Erica could not wait for the day when they realized that.

Plus she couldn't help but think of how cute they looked together. Like now, Jillian's head was still resting on his stomach and he was running his fingers through her hair with his other arm draped over her. The two looked like a picture perfect couple as they watched the home movie together.

Erica cleared her throat as she sat up, getting their attention, then said,"I hate to bust up the party, but I'm getting sleepy so I'm going to head upstairs."

"I thought we were sleeping down here?" Jillian asked with a confused expression.

"Yeah, but, um I forgot how sucky this mattress is and it's killing my back." Erica lied, wanting to give them some time alone. She knew it was probably to soon to play matchmaker with them, but she just wanted her cousin to be happy and she knew Isaac could be the one to do that.

"Ok, we'll go upstairs then." Jillian said, as she sat up.

"Yeah, I should probably get going too." Isaac said, as he too sat up.

"No!" Erica yelled out, taking them by surprise. This was not part of her plan. "I just mean you two can hang out a little longer. You haven't seen each other in years and have more catching up to do." She added.

"Yeah, but .." Jillian begin to say, hating the thought of leaving her cousin out.

"Seriously it's ok. You two have fun. We'll watch more movies another night." Erica said, as she begin to back out of the room. She waved at the two and told them 'good night' before turning around to leave the room.

Once they alone, Jillian turned to look at Isaac as she asked,"so are you leaving me too?"

"I guess I can hang out a little longer." Isaac said, causing her to smile.

He propped up several of the pillows then leaned back against them to continue watching the movie. He wasn't all that surprised when she laid down beside him, cuddling against him and resting her head on his chest.

"So how is school going for Erica, really?" Jillian asked him, then added,"she keeps saying it's great but I know she has had problems in the past with people being mean to her and all."

"It seems to be going ok for her. I try to watch out for her but between school, lacrosse and working I don't get to often." Isaac said.

"Thank you for that." Jillian said, happy that Erica had him looking out for her when she wasn't around.

"I just can't believe how mean some people can be. She told me about the last time she had a seizure, someone recorded it and put it online." She said sadly, then added angrily,"if I ever find out who did it. I'm going to kick so many asses."

Even though the situation wasn't funny, he couldn't help but chuckle at her comment. Mainly cause he knew she meant it. She was very over protective of Erica.

"Sadly there are a lot of assholes at Beacon Hills and I think most are on the lacrosse team, so you might not ever find out who did it." Isaac pointed out.

"I still can't believe you actually play lacrosse." Jillian said with a laugh.

"Why do I feel like that's a insult?" Isaac asked.

"I'm not trying to insult you." Jillian said, as she laughed again. She raised her head to look at him then added,"I just remember how clumsy you were when we were younger. You could barely walk and talk at the some time without falling flat on your face."

"That may be true then but I'm not the same guy now." Isaac said, as they locked eyes again, giving her the flutters again like earlier.

She bit her bottom lip and smiled, he was right, he was not the same little lanky Isaac from next door. That Isaac never made her stomach flip flop. That Isaac never stared into her eyes like he was doing right now. That Isaac didn't have kissable lips that she just couldn't help but look at for a moment before looking back into his eyes again.

She cleared her throat and felt her eyes widen slightly, she couldn't believe those thoughts had actually crossed her mind. But she had to stop thinking like that. It didn't mean anything, it couldn't mean anything. She had to go back to thinking of him as only a friend.

"You're right. You are different. You're taller." Jillian pointed out, then teased as she grabbed his arm,"and is that actually a muscle I feel?"

"I have more than one muscle." Isaac said, as he playfully rolled his eyes.

"Really? I only feel one." Jillian joked.

"Well you have to let me flex first." Isaac said back.

"Right, that's the problem." Jillian said sarcastically.

"You know I take my earlier comment back." Isaac joked,"I am not happy that you are back cause you're mean."

Jillian laughed as she laid her head back down on his chest and hugged up to him as she said,"aw you know you're happy. You know you missed me."

"I did. A lot actually." Isaac admitted softly, as he ran his fingers through her hair again.

She smiled at his words and closed her eyes. The more he played with her hair, the more sleepy she became. She wasn't sure how long she had been resting when she felt him move as he tried to carefully sit up without waking her. She grabbed onto his shirt to stop him, as she whispered out,"stay."

"I wish I could." Isaac whispered back, as he laid back against the pillows again and pulled her closer to him. "But you heard your aunt." He added.

"Aunt Amy doesn't have to know. I'll just tell her your my body pillow." Jillian mumbled, as she threw one of her legs over his, getting comfortable.

Isaac chuckled at her comment then laid his head on top of hers as he said,"I should get home soon anyway before dad finds out I snuck out to see you."

"How are the things going at home?" Jillian asked softly, although she already had a idea the answer he would give. She knew how bad things were for him and wished there was something she could do to make things better, but he had sworn her to secrecy a long time ago and made her promise she would never get involved. The last thing he wanted was for her to get in the middle of it and risk getting hurt, so all she could really do was be there for him, which she always was.

"About the same." Isaac answered with a sigh.

She raised her head to look at him as she said,"I know I don't live next door anymore so you can't run to me there, but I'm sure Aunt Amy won't mind you crashing here if you ever need a place."

"Or if she does, I'll sneak you in anyway." She added with a smile,"either way I'm here for you Isaac and I always will be."

Isaac smiled at her comment as he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers before quietly admitting,"I'm so happy you're here. My life is better when you're in it."

She smiled back as she pulled back to look at him. She lightly caressed his cheek before leaning forward to press her lips against his other cheek. She kept her lips against his skin for a few moments before pulling back and saying,"my life is better now too."

_...ooo..._

_a/n - hello readers! Yes I have started yet another story lol. I just can't help it lol. Anyway this story will start early season one but since Jillian, Erica or Isaac are not aware of werewolves they will not be involved in any of that at first so I will kind of be following along with season one but doing my own thing. Since there isn't much said about Erica's life on the show I am making things like that up, so if I do get something wrong I apologize and please just go with it lol. I can't wait to hear what you all think. Big thanks to the ones who have listened to me ramble on about this story a lot lately and helping me out. Happy reading! _


	2. Old Crush

_**Chapter Two - Old Crush**_

* * *

The next day, Jillian and Erica slept in late then went downstairs to clean things up from the night before when they watched movies with Isaac. As Jillian picked up the trash around the room she couldn't help but smile when she thought back to last night. Spending time with Isaac as well as her cousin was the best welcome back ever.

As she laid by Isaac's side while they caught each other up on the last few years of their lives, she was reminded of how connected they were and she was also reminded of how badly she had missed that. After she moved she had met and befriended a few people, but she had never bonded with someone the way she had with Isaac, they had a special friendship that could never be replaced and she wasn't looking to replace it. As corny as it sounds, he was her soul mate, they would always be in each others lives and she knew that from a early age.

Erica glanced over at her cousin and saw the smile on her face and wondered what she was thinking about. She hoped she was thinking of Isaac. She also hoped something happened between them the night before after she went upstairs. She had waited to see if Jillian would mention anything about it, but when she didn't, Erica couldn't stand it any longer and just had to ask.

"So what happened after I went to bed last night?" Erica asked casually.

"Not much." Jillian answered,"we talked, finished the home movies and then he left like two minutes before your mom got home."

"Mom would have flipped if she saw you two cuddling." Erica said with a laugh, then she added as a hint to see if Jillian would admit anything,"she would swear something was going on between you two."

"Yeah but she knows me and Isaac are just friends. Besides it's not like we were going at it on the floor." Jillian said back with a laugh, then added,"we use to cuddle all the time, but it's completely innocent."

"You two did look cute together last night. Just saying." Erica added with a smile.

"Of course we did. We're both cuties so together we're really cute." Jillian joked, as she bent down to pick up the last bit of trash from the floor.

Erica laughed and rolled her eyes as she said,"that's not what I meant."

"Oh no, not you too." Jillian groaned, as she straighten up. She and Isaac both have had people question why they were not together in the past. It was mainly family and friends, although she did have a teacher one time ask, but none of them could understand why two people who seemed perfect for each other were not together, but she and Isaac would tell them they were just friends, they loved and cared about each other, but they were just friends.

She walked over toward Erica, who was holding a trash bag open, and tossed the trash into it then added,"come on, Erica, you know me and Isaac don't like each other that way. You even asked him if he liked me one time and he said no."

"We were eight when that happened." Erica pointed out with a laugh, then added,"he was still convinced you had cooties so of course he said no."

Jillian laughed back then said,"well either way, he doesn't like me that way. We're just friends."

"Well not really. You and Isaac are more than just friends but not really a couple." Erica pointed out, then added,"I mean you tell each other everything, you spend as much time as possible together, you cuddle, you hug and I've even seen you two kiss each other on the cheek and forehead. The only thing you two don't do is actually kiss or have sex."

"Erica!" Jillian called out, then added,"can you not use the words Isaac and sex in the same sentence."

"Why? You like it?" Erica teased.

Jillian chuckled then said,"no, it's embarrassing. We use to take baths together."

"Ok that was a very long time ago. You two were still in diapers when that happened. You haven't seen him naked in a long time, obviously he doesn't look the same down there. If you don't believe me, check out his hands." Erica said with a laugh, then added as she wiggled her fingers,"long fingers."

"Oh, my God! I can not believe you just said that." Jillian said with a laugh. She bit her bottom lip and felt her cheeks heat up when she thought back to the night before when he was running his fingers through her hair, now that she thought about it, he does have nice, long fingers.

"You're thinking about it right now aren't you?" Erica teased.

"What? No, of course not!" Jillian called out, as she shook her head and put Isaac out of her mind.

"Then why are you blushing?" Erica pointed out with a laugh.

"I'm not, it's just... it's hot in here." Jillian said back, as she turned around so Erica couldn't see her face.

"No it's not." Erica said back, then jokingly added,"you're just hot. Hot for Isaac."

Jillian shook her head and laughed then said,"I'm not hot for anyone. I just moved back into town, I'm not looking to date anyone."

"You say that now, but just wait, it'll happen." Erica said, smiling.

"Ok enough about my non-existent love life. What about you?" Jillian asked,"are you still crazy about Stiles?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't know I exist." Erica said back sadly.

"Well make him notice you." Jillian said back, then added,"we're going shopping with your mom today. We can find you some 'notice me' clothes."

"We're going shopping for bedroom stuff, your new bedroom, not clothes." Erica pointed out.

"True, but I'm sure she won't mind taking us clothes shopping too." Jillian said back.

"I don't know." Erica said with a shrug, feeling uncomfortable about the whole shopping thing. She wasn't really into fashion or labels. She didn't care to dress up and stand out in the crowd, she would rather fade away into the back ground where no one would notice her. If no one noticed her, then no one could make fun of her.

"Besides the only real way to get his attention would be to wear a Lydia Martin costume." She added with a frown.

"I never understood what he saw in her." Jillian said, then added,"she was always so ..."

"Popular and pretty." Erica said interrupting her, then added,"which is all any guy wants."

"Actually I was going to say she was always so bitchy and rude. Even from a young age she always turned her nose up at us and acted like she thought she was better." Jillian said, then added,"but back to your comment. I don't agree. I don't think every guy is after the most popular girl."

"Yeah right." Erica said, as she rolled her eyes, then added,"name one guy."

"Duh, Isaac. He has never went after a popular girl." Jillian said. She thought about it a little longer then said,"actually I don't think he has ever asked out a girl."

Erica looked over at her with a grin on her face, thinking that it was cute that Jillian was bringing the conversation back to Isaac. Wanting to test how her cousin might feel about him, she shrugged her shoulders, as if it say she didn't know if he had or not, even though she knew he only had eyes for one girl and that was Jillian.

At seeing her shrug, Jillian lowered her eyebrows in confusion as she felt her stomach drop at the thought of Isaac asking some random girl out. He had never mentioned to her about going on dates but what if he had?

Obviously, he was free to date whoever, it wasn't like he was her boyfriend, they had always been just friends and she had dated a few guys in her old town, so it shouldn't matter to her if he did, but for some strange reason it did matter. It matter a lot which confused the hell out of her.

"W-who did he ask out? Who was she? When did this happen?" Jillian asked, as she laid a hand over her stomach feeling sick, then quickly added,"I mean it doesn't matter, of course, I-I'm happy for him, but I just.. you know.. wanted to know. As his best friend, I feel like I should know these things."

Jillian was hoping Erica wouldn't notice how badly it bothered her, but she did. Erica now knew exactly how she felt about Isaac and she couldn't be happier, she had always wanted them to date. Isaac had never admitted to her to liking Jillian but Erica use to see it on his face all the time, just like she saw it last night while they were watching movies, but apparently both were going to be stubborn and not admit it to each other, meaning she was going to have to step in and play matchmaker for them.

Erica opened her mouth, planning to grill her cousin about her possible feelings, but before she could say anything else she heard her mom call out to them, telling them to get ready so they could leave. Erica groaned, not liking the fact that she was being interrupted, especially since she felt like she was close to getting Jillian to admit something, but she also really didn't want to go to her appointment. She knew her doctor wanted to put her on a new medication that had terrible side effects. It was hard enough being a teenage girl without all the added problems.

When Erica felt someone grab her hand, she glanced down and noticed Jillian had grabbed it to give her a friendly squeeze, letting her know she wasn't alone. Erica smiled as she squeezed her hand back, glad that Jillian was back in her life. She could always count on her cousin to have her back.

_...ooo..._

After the doctor's appointment, they went to the hospital for Erica to have her blood work done. While she and her mom were doing that, Jillian was wandered aimlessly around the hospital as she texted with Isaac, who was asking her if she was coming to his lacrosse game that night. She wrote him back, promising him she would be there, then looked back down at her phone and giggled when she saw he had sent back a smiley face. He sent her smiley faces often, but only cause he knew they made her laugh and making her laugh was one of his favorite pastimes.

She was so lost in her own little world, she didn't realize she had bumped into someone until she heard someone hiss out in pain, followed by them yelling,"hey! Why don't you try watching where the hell you are going?"

"Sorry.. sorry." Jillian quickly apologized, as she looked up then froze when she saw it was the one and only Jackson Whittemore.

A nervous smile appeared on her face and she felt her palms begin to sweat as she looked at him standing before her.

Years ago she had had a huge crush on him, she would even beg Isaac to sit outside with her so she didn't look like a total stalker as she watched Jackson playing with his friends in front of his house, which happened to be across the street from hers.

Sadly he had never noticed her though, she was way to dorky back then to grab his attention, but she wasn't that same girl anymore. She wasn't the lanky, four-eyed tomboy she use to be and from the looks of it even he noticed that when she saw a smile appear on his face.

"Hey, no need to apologize. I shouldn't have snapped, I'm sorry." Jackson said back. He wasn't completely sure who she was, but he felt like a idiot for yelling at her. One of his main rules in life was never yell at a beautiful girl, especially one as beautiful as the one in front of him right now.

"No you were right. I should have been watching where I was going." Jillian said, then held up her phone as she joked,"see this why they say don't text while walking."

Jackson chuckled at her as he reached up to rub his hurt shoulder from when Scott knocked him down at practice earlier that week. When she saw him grab his shoulder, she lowered her eyebrows and asked,"are you ok? I know I couldn't have hit you that hard."

"No, no, I'm fine." Jackson said, not wanting her to think he was weak or something. He puffed out his chest as he added,"just a little injury during practice, lacrosse practice, I'm the captain."

"Interesting." Jillian said, causing Jackson to cock his head to side slightly, confused as to how him being captain was so interesting.

"I just mean you seem so proud to be playing with sticks and balls." Jillian added with a chuckle, catching him off guard.

"Was that a sexual joke?" Jackson asked, as he flashed her a smile, then added seriously,"because lacrosse is not a joke. Not in this town."

"Oh I know." Jillian said, then added,"and I would never make fun of the sport, especially since my best friend is on the team."

"Who?" Jackson asked curiously.

"Isaac." Jillian answered with a smile, then added when Jackson still looked confused,"Lahey. His name is Isaac Lahey. Tall, curly head boy, blue eyes, wears number 14 on his jersey. Any of this ring a bell?"

Now it was her turn to look confused and took a surprise step back when Jackson suddenly started laughing out loud. He shook his head as another chuckle escaped then said,"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh, but Lahey? You're friends with Lahey?"

"Yeah, why?" Jillian asked, still not sure why that was so funny or shocking to him.

"It's just you're so... and he's so..."

"So what?" Jillian asked, as she folded her arms across her chest, feeling a little peeved.

"I just mean look at you, then look at him, I'm just surprised you two have anything in common." Jackson explained.

"We have several things in common, which makes sense since we have been friends since birth." Jillian said back.

"How... how is that even possible?" Jackson asked confused, thinking she had just moved to town since he didn't recognize her.

"Oh God, please don't tell me I'm going to have to explain to you how babies are born? I mean, didn't your parents teach you that?" Jillian asked, only slightly kidding or at least she hoped so.

"What? No! That's not what I meant." Jackson said, then added,"I just mean, you're new to town right? How can you two be that close already?"

"You think I'm new?" Jillian asked with a laugh, thinking he was kidding until she realized he wasn't. He honestly didn't recognize her, she knew she was never on his radar but she had actually lived in this town for ten years before moving, you would think he would have noticed her at least once.

"Wow, you really don't know who I am." She added softly, then added,"we went to school together until 4th grade. I lived right across the street from you until my family moved."

"You're joking right?" Jackson asked with a laugh, then added when she shook her head,"come on, I would remember a pretty girl like you living across from me."

Jillian laughed out loud then said when he shot her a confused look,"sorry it's just funny to hear Jackson Whittemore using a corny line on me."

Jackson laughed back until he realized what she had said, then asked,"wait, are you calling me corny?"

"No. Of course not." Jillian said, then laughed as she added,"only the words you use."

"Fair enough." Jackson said back with a smile, then added,"so since you clearly know me are you ever going to tell me who you are."

"I'm Jillian Bennet." She said, as she held out her hand for him to shake. She couldn't help but smile and blush a little when he lightly grabbed her hand to shake it as he stared into her eyes with his famous smirk on his face. She had always dreamed that one day he would look at her like that and now he was, which made her a very happy, yet extremely nervous girl.

"Jillian Bennet." He mumbled, still trying to place her but was coming up blank. As he continued to hold on to her hand, he lowered his eyebrows then asked,"are you sure you lived across from me?"

"I'm sure. I use to hang out on my front porch all the time just so I can stare at ... " She begin to say until she quickly shut her mouth when she realized she was about to tell him about how she use to stare at him. There was no way she could admit that.

"Stare at what?" Jackson asked confused when she stopped talking.

"Just... staring at everything. Sky, grass, trees, you name it and I was staring. It's what I do." Jillian nervously said with a laugh.

"What about me? Did you ever stare at me?" Jackson joked, as he shot her another grin.

Jillian's eyes widen slightly as she forced out a chuckle and said,"what? No! I never.. I never stared at you. What do you think I am, some kind of stalker or something?"

She was totally a stalker back then but he didn't need to know that.

"I was kidding." Jackson said with a laugh.

"I knew that. M-Me too!" Jillian said back, as she silently cursed at herself for being such a nervous wreck while talking to him. She was acting a lot like the old Jillian, the one who would get all flustered anytime he looked at her and make a fool of herself. She had become more confident and sure of herself the last few years at her old high school, but then just a few minutes in front of him and she had lost her cool all over again.

Jackson, who was still holding her head, smiled at her until he heard someone call out his name. Jillian quickly took a step back from him and rolled her eyes when she saw who it was. It was none other than Lydia Martin, Jackson's very popular and pretty girlfriend.

"Did he do it?" Lydia questioned him, wondering if the doctor gave him a cortisone shot while completely ignoring Jillian as she stood beside Jackson.

Jackson nodded his head then looked over at Jillian before looking back at Lydia and saying,"this is Jillian Bennet. Apparently she just moved back to town."

Jillian nodded her head, letting him know that was right, as Lydia looked over at her. She looked at the blonde closely then said,"oh yeah, I remember you. Barfy Bennet."

Jillian cringed at the old cruel nickname everyone started calling her after she got sick one day at school in the third grade. She had really hoped that nickname had died and everyone had forgot, but apparently not.

"Yep, that's me. But most people just call me Jillian, the nice ones at least." Jillian said back sweetly. She was always taught 'you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar', whatever that meant, all she knew was she was suppose to always be nice to people, even the bitchy ones.

"Right, well, we got to go. Come on Jackson." Lydia snapped, as she linked her arm with his and pulled him down the hall before he could say another word.

"Wow, she hasn't changed at all." Jillian mumbled to herself, as she watched them walk away together.

_...ooo..._

After the appointment and shopping the rest of the afternoon, Jillian and Erica were now in Erica's bedroom while Jillian tried to talk her into going to the lacrosse game.

"Erica, please, please, please go to the game with me." Jillian begged, as she placed her hands together like she was praying and poked her bottom lip out.

"Ugh, you know I hate going to these kind of things." Erica moaned. She hated attending any kind of school type activity. The less she was around her classmates the better.

"I know, but this is for Isaac. It's his first time starting in a game and he needs us there, besides I already kind of promised him we would be there." Jillian pointed out.

"Trust me, he won't miss me. As long as you are there, he will be happy." Erica said back.

"That's crazy, you're his friend too, he wants you there." Jillian said, then added in a sing song voice when a thought hit her,"Stiles will be there."

"Wow, yeah you're right. He will be there." Erica said, then added sarcastically,"now I can spend more hours with him while he completely ignores me. Sounds like a lot of fun, sign me right up for that."

Jillian's face dropped at her latter comment, she just knew she had finally talked her into it but could now see she was mistaken. She plopped down on the bed beside Erica as she whined,"come on Erica, please. Please don't make me go alone."

Erica sighed, slowly starting to give in, as she said,"I wouldn't even know what to wear."

"I'll pick you out something cute, something that might help a certain someone notice you." Jillian offered with a smile.

"It's going to be freezing tonight. How am I going to look cute in a heavy coat?" Erica questioned.

"You'll have a cute heavy coat, scarf and I'll do your hair and make-up." Jillian answered.

"Ok fine, I'll go." Erica said, as she rolled her eyes, finally caving in.

"Yes!" Jillian called out happily, as she stood up from the bed then added,"you are not going to regret this."

_...ooo..._

_a/n - hello readers! I am so happy to see people are interested in this story. I am having a lot of fun writing it. I know there isn't any action yet and probably won't be for awhile but hopefully you all won't get bored and will still like it. Oh also I wanted to say that this is not going to be a Erica/Isaac story, I just don't want anyone to waste their time reading it if that is what they were looking for, sorry =/ _

_Thank you to everyone reading or adding the story. Also big thanks to Mkay-212, anon, LovingHeart22, whalegonetoheaven, Giselle, LionHeartMisfit, Erudessa-gabrielle, guest and danielscarfmanxx for reviewing. Happy reading! _


	3. Game Time

_**Chapter Three - Game Time  
**_

* * *

A couple of hours later, Erica stepped out of the car and shivered when a cold breeze hit her. She looked over the top of the car at Jillian, who had just stepped out of the car, then said,"I am already regretting this."

"Come on, don't say that. We just got here." Jillian said, as she walked around the car to stand in front of Erica.

"But it's so cold and crowded." Erica whined, as a group of students walked past them, knocking into her and almost causing her to fall to the ground until Jillian quickly grabbed her arms to catch her.

"Ok that's it. I'm getting back in the car." Erica said, as she went to turn around to open the passenger side door until Jillian reached out to stop her.

"Oh no you don't. We are here to watch the game and that is what we are going to do." Jillian said, as she turned Erica back around.

"No. This was a very bad idea. Plus I look ridiculous." Erica said, as she gestured at the red wool coat she was wearing. She normally dressed in darker colors so she wouldn't stand out but Jillian had put her in a red colored coat with ruffles, which was something else she had never wore before, as well as a multicolored knitted wool scarf

"You do not look ridiculous. You look amazing." Jillian argued, as she pulled at one of Erica's curls. She had left her hair down and had curled it, which was also something Erica was not use to. Her hair was usually pulled back or puffed out and frizzy.

"Would it make you feel better if we switched coats?" Jillian asked, who was wearing a navy blue coat, which she figured would make her feel better since it was a dark color. Maybe dressing Erica in a bright colors was not the best idea now, obviously she wasn't ready to stand out that much and that was ok.

As Erica nodded her head, Jillian took off her coat then quickly switched with Erica. Once she had the coat on and buttoned up she looked over at her cousin and asked,"better?"

"Much. Thank you." Erica said with a smile.

"No problem. Now let's go cheer on Isaac." Jillian said, as she linked her arm with Erica's and begin to walk toward the field.

The two girls stood near the bleachers as they glanced around for Isaac, Jillian smiled and pointed off to the side when she finally saw him. They made their way over toward him, Jillian calling out his name, hoping he could hear them over the loud crowd. When Isaac heard her voice, he finally turned his head to look at her, a huge grin on his face.

"Hey! You made it!" Isaac said happily.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss your first big game." Jillian said back, she pulled Erica from behind her to stand by her side as she added,"I even dragged Erica out to cheer you on."

"Great. I'm glad you're here." Isaac said, as he looked right at Jillian then he quickly looked over at Erica as he added,"both of you. I'm glad both of you are here."

Erica playfully rolled her eyes as Jillian and Isaac went back to looking at each other. It was clear to see there was something happening between them and she couldn't wait until they both realized it.

She cleared her throat, getting both of their attention, as she pointed behind her then said,"I'm going to go find us some seats."

"I'll be right there." Jillian told her.

"No problem, take your time." Erica said, then added,"good luck, Isaac."

"Thanks." Isaac said back, as they watched Erica walk off.

Once they were alone the two casually talked as Jillian wrapped her arms around herself and hopped from one foot to the next trying to keep herself warm. She suddenly regretted changing coats with Erica earlier, since the one she had on now was not as thick as the other one. Isaac chuckled when he saw her bouncing around, then reached down to grab a coat that was sitting on top of his bag.

"Here." He said, as he held the coat out to her.

"I can't take your coat or you'll be c-cold." Jillian said with a shivered.

"I'm going to be on the field running around, I'll be fine, plus I brought a extra coat cause I know how cold you get." Isaac explained, causing her to smile.

She continued to smile up at him as he wrapped the thick coat around her shoulders. She slipped her arms into the sleeves and wrapped it around herself. She took a deep breath and felt her heart skip a beat when she caught a whiff of his scent coming from the coat. It was a clean, woodsy smell with a small hint of spice which she knew was from the body spray he used occasionally.

Isaac rubbed his hands up and down her arms, hoping to warm her up, as he asked,"is that better?"

Jillian bit her bottom lip, feeling that fluttering in her stomach again, as she nodded her head. Isaac smiled at her as he pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. He kept the lock of hair between his fingers, feeling the silky texture before slowly removing his hand. The two continued to stare at each as if they were in their own little world until she heard someone call out to her.

"Hey, J.B." Jackson called out. When she turned her head to look at him, he threw out his arms as he asked,"you here to watch me kick some ass?"

"If by _'kick some ass'_ you mean watching you trip and fall on your ass then yeah, count me in." Jillian said sweetly. She pointed over toward one of the bigger players on the opposite team then added,"now that is a guy that looks like he can kick some ass."

Jackson looked over at the guy she pointed out then scoffed as he said,"I can take him."

"Right, well try not to get hurt out there, wouldn't want to mess up that pretty face." She said back with a wink.

Jackson chucked and rolled his eyes at her comment before he ran over toward some of his team mates. She turned back around to face Isaac and saw a confused and slightly pissed off expression on his face.

"What?" Jillian asked, wondering what was wrong with him.

"What was that about?" Isaac asked, as he nodded his head toward Jackson, hoping he didn't sound as jealous as he felt.

"I was just kidding, I don't think the other team is going to kick ass." Jillian said, thinking that is what he meant. "I think you guys are going to totally kill them." She added, then she took a step toward him and placed a finger on either side of his mouth, forcing him to smile as she said,"now put on a happy face and go kick some ass."

Isaac pulled back from her, feeling annoyed, not so much at her but at the situation. He didn't like Jackson talking to her, not while he shot her that grin of his cause Isaac knew exactly what that meant. He knew that meant that Jackson was finally seeing in Jillian what he had been seeing for years and he didn't like it one bit.

"No, I mean what was that with Jackson. I didn't even know you two knew each other." Isaac added.

"Isaac, did you forget I use to live in this town?" Jillian joked.

Isaac rolled his eyes at the question then said,"you know that is not what I meant." He folded his arms across his chest then continued,"I just never knew you two were buddy-buddy. The way I remember it, he never knew you existed unless you count the times he laughed it up with his friends when someone called you Barfy Bennet."

"Harsh." Jillian breathed out, then added with a hurt expression on her face,"you don't have to bring up my dorky past Isaac, I lived it and trust me I remember it."

Isaac sighed, feeling bad for hurting her feelings, then said,"that's not what I'm trying to do. I just don't understand what happened. You go from Barfy to beautiful and now suddenly you're part of the in crowd."

"What? I'm not part of any crowd." Jillian said back confused on what he was even talking about, but she didn't miss the remark about her being beautiful, unfortunately now was not the time to get all giggly about it.

Isaac scoffed as he nodded toward Jackson, who was looking over at Jillian right at that moment, then mumbled,"it sure looks like it."

"Ok, wait a minute, what the hell is going on here?" Jillian asked, as she ran a hand through her hair. This whole conversation was giving her a headache.

"I don't understand any of this. I came here for you Isaac, to cheer you on. I even walked over here to wish you luck, so how did this get turned into me becoming BFF's with the popular crowd, which is not true by the way." She pointed out, then she took a step toward him and reached out to grab his hand before asking softly,"what is going on with you?"

"N-nothing. It's nothing." Isaac lied, as he pulled his hand away to put his pads on. She opened her mouth to say something else but before she could say a word they heard Coach Finstock blow his whistle and yell for Isaac to get on the field. Isaac picked up his lacrosse stick then mumbled out a 'got to go' before brushing past her, leaving her to stand alone and baffled on what the hell just happened.

_...ooo..._

After her very confusing moment with Isaac, Jillian made her way over toward the bleachers and sat down beside Erica, a confused expression still on her face. Erica glanced over at her with a smile and turned her head back toward the field until she saw the look on Jillian's face. She looked back over at her cousin as she asked,"you ok Jilly?"

"I... I don't know." Jillian mumbled, then she looked at Erica as she added,"I just had a really weird conversation with Isaac."

"About?" Erica asked.

"That's just it, I don't even know what we were talking about." Jillian said feeling annoyed. She pointed to the oversized coat she had on then added,"he gave me this coat to wear, I spoke to Jackson for a minute then when I turned back to talk to Isaac it was like he was pissed about something, like I did something to offend him or something."

"And this all happened after you spoke to Jackson?" Erica questioned.

"Yeah, right after." Jillian answered.

Erica shook her head, her poor, sweet, clueless cousin couldn't see what was happening right in front of her face. It was plain to see that Isaac was jealous, but she wasn't going to be the one to tell Jillian that. Isaac needed to be the one to step up and tell Jillian how he feels. She might try to push Isaac and Jillian together as much as possible, but she wasn't going to do all the work.

"So let me get this straight.. you were talking to Isaac, then spoke to Jackson and Isaac got all weird." Erica said, laying it out. Hoping if Jillian heard it all she would be able to figure it out herself, but when she realize that wasn't going to happen, she added sarcastically,"wow, shocking, wonder what would cause him to act like that."

"I don't know, that's why I am so confused." Jillian said.

"Mm-hm, yep it's all very confusing. Guess we'll never know." Erica said with a small chuckle, as she looked out at the field to see Isaac looking over at Jillian. She looked back over at her cousin then added,"unless you ask him."

"Ask him?" Jillian asked.

"Yeah, you know when you ask someone a question and then they answer it." Erica answered back with a laugh.

"Ha-ha smart-ass. You know what I meant." Jillian said, as she laughed back. "I dunno though, it probably didn't mean anything, maybe he was nervous about the game." She added. The more she thought about it, the more she begin to think that maybe she was making it into a bigger deal than it was. For a moment she thought that he could have maybe, possibly been jealous, but that made no sense to her at all.

"Yeah, I'm sure that was it." Erica said sarcastically. She looked back at the field and sat up straight with a gasp when she saw Isaac had the ball. She tapped Jillian on the arm as she pointed at him and called out,"he's got the ball. he's got the ball."

"He's got the ball." Jillian repeated happily, as she jumped up and begin to clap as she watched him run down the field toward the net on the other end of the field. She threw her arms in the air and screamed out his name as he threw the ball into the net, getting a point for his team.

Isaac looked up at her and grinned as he watched her jump up and down while hugging Erica as they cheered for him. Even if she couldn't see him smiling at her, she still smiled back at him and gave him a wave. He gave her a small wave back then ran back toward his team feeling like he was on top of the world.

For the next several minutes the two girls cheered out for Isaac anytime he had the ball. While Jillian was watching him play, she noticed most of the team ignoring one of their own players and lowered her eyebrows in confusion. Wondering what was going on out there.

She leaned toward Erica and nodded toward him as she asked,"who's the boy the team is playing keep away from?"

Erica looked at the number on his shirt then said,"that would be Scott McCall."

"Oh Stiles' friend right?" Jillian asked. She vaguely remembered him, but she did remember Erica talking about both boys since she was always keeping her updated on what Stiles did.

"Right." Erica answered.

"I thought you said he and Stiles were not that good and usually rode the bench." Jillian said, repeating what Erica has told her in the past.

"I guess he got better over the summer and made first line." Erica said with a shrug. She remembered how badly Scott use to play and was surprised at how good he was now.

Jillian raised her eyebrows in surprise when Scott jumped over a player from the opposing team to catch the ball then run down the field with it. "Wow, looks like he practiced a lot over the summer." Jillian said, then asked,"is Stiles out there too?"

"No, he's on the bench." Erica said, as she nodded her head over toward where he was sitting.

Jillian chuckled then said,"of course you would know exactly where Stiles was sitting."

"Shut up." Erica said, as she stuck her tongue out at her.

Jillian watched Stiles for a moment and saw him staring at Scott with a worried expression on his face. She tilted her head to the side then said,"I wonder what is going on with him. He looks scared about something."

"Probably just scared about how close the game is. You know how boys are with their sports." Erica said back.

"Yeah, maybe." Jillian said back, although she felt like it was something more than that.

"Hey, someone is trying to get your attention." Erica said, as she tapped her arm and nodded toward the field.

Jillian looked away from Stiles and over toward the field, thinking it was going to be Isaac, but was surprised to see it was Jackson staring at her.

Even if he was pissed at how well McCall was playing at the moment, he couldn't pass up a chance to flash Jillian one of his trademark smirks. He nodded his head toward the scoreboard, where both teams were tied, then looked at her as if to say _'who's kicking ass now'_.

Jillian chuckled at Jackson, understanding what he was trying to point out then looked back at the other players, Isaac to be more specific, and noticed his shoulders were hunched over, like he was upset about something and she couldn't help but be worried about him.

When she heard loud cheering, she looked over in the direction everyone else was and saw Scott throw the ball right at the last second, winning the game. As everyone rushed to the field to celebrate, Jillian grabbed Erica's hand as they helped each other walked down the bleachers with the rest of the crowd. Once they made it to the bottom, Jillian glanced around to look for Isaac to congratulate him on a great game. She noticed out of the corner of her eye how uncomfortable Erica looked. She knew she wasn't to happy with big crowds. She was lucky to talk her into coming to the game, but she knew Erica wouldn't want to hang around to celebrate.

Jillian turned to look at her cousin and held out the car keys, asking her if she wanted to wait for her in the car. Erica quickly grabbed the keys and shot her a relieved smile. Jillian told her she would be right there then kept a eye on her until she made it to the parking lot, once she couldn't see her anymore, she turned back toward the field as she begin to search for Isaac again. She followed the crowd further on to the field then felt someone tap her on the shoulder, she turned around with a smile on her face as she called out,"finally, I found you."

"Oh, it's you." She added, when she realized it was Jackson instead of Isaac like she had thought.

"You just can't stay away can you?" Jackson asked with a cocky grin on his face.

Jillian softly chuckled at his question as she folded her arms across her chest. She flashed him a sweet smile as she said,"I just can't help myself. It's like I'm drawn to narcissistic golden boys. It's a terrible problem, I'm actually planning on seeing a doctor about it next week."

"Funny." Jackson said with a laugh, then added,"but I actually know what you're talking about cause I have a similar problem."

"Oh really?" Jillian asked, as she tilted her head to the side and waited for him to continue.

"Mm-hm." Jackson said with a nod, then added with a smile,"I seem to be attracted to cute, sarcastic blondes."

Jillian bit her bottom lip to keep from smiling but couldn't stop the small smirk from appearing on her face. She almost wanted to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming, but she knew she wasn't. Jackson was really in front of her and he was really flirting with her. The whole thing was like a dream come true for her.

She cleared her throat and tried to quit smiling as she said back,"don't you mean strawberry blondes? You know, like your girlfriend, Lydia?"

"Sure, that's what I meant." Jackson said back unconvincingly.

Jillian blushed a little when he locked eyes with her and smiled, they both knew what he really meant. When she saw something out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head and saw Isaac watching them. When her eyes caught his, he shook his head then turned to walk away toward the locker room.

Jillian lowered her eyebrows in confusion then looked back at Jackson as she told him she had to go. She ignored him as he called out her name and ran toward Isaac. She caught up to him before he could walk into the school and lightly grabbed his arm to pull him off to the side so they could talk privately.

"Hey, where are you going? I've been looking for you." Jillian said, as she tried to catch her breath from chasing him down.

"Were you? Cause it looked like you were kind of busy with your new buddy Jackson." Isaac snapped. He instantly felt bad about his comment when she shot him a disappointed look. He hated snapping at her, he hated this jealousy he was feeling, but he couldn't help it. Seeing Jackson look at her that way made him physically sick.

Jillian looked down at the ground for a moment, apparently he was still in a bad mood and she begin to think maybe it was time to take Erica's advice and just ask him what was wrong. She raised her head to look at him as she asked softly,"Isaac, what's wrong? I mean, did I do something to piss you off? Did I upset you somehow?"

Isaac sighed as he ran a hand over his hair, now he felt even worse for the way he had been acting. Because of his stupid jealously, he now had her thinking she did something wrong.

"No. No, you didn't do anything Jilly." Isaac said, as he looked at her hoping she could see that he meant that.

"Are you sure? Cause you've been acting weird all night." Jillian said, then added,"at first I thought it was cause you were jealous."

"J-jealous? You think I'm jealous?" Isaac asked nervously, worried that she had figured out how he really felt.

"Yeah, but that's crazy right?" She questioned, then added before he can answer,"cause there is no reason to be jealous. We're just friends."

"Right." Isaac mumbled. Sometimes he really hated those words, _'just friends'._

"So we're ok?" Jillian asked with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah we're ok." Isaac mumbled, as he took a few steps backwards toward the school building to head for the locker room. He kept his eyes on her as he added bitterly,"of course we're ok. We're just friends remember?"

Jillian's mouth dropped open in surprise as she watched him walk away, leaving her confused by his actions once again. She took a deep breath and slowly released it, she had only been in town a couple of days and things were already confusing. Sadly, she had a feeling things were about to get even more complicated.

_...ooo..._

_a/n - hello readers! Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. I know things are gonna slow, but hopefully you all still like it. Thank you to everyone reading and/or adding the story. Also big thanks to RHatch89, Undeniable Weirdness, LynZann, Mkay-212, LionHeartMisfit, Lucy Greenhill, Guest, EmeraldSwan92 and randi101 for reviewing. If you haven't already you can check out my polyvore{link of my profile} I plan to make outfits and banners for this story.  
_

_Also don't forget to check out the collab I am writing with my good friend Sage Londyn. It's called 'Once in a Blue Moon' _


	4. The Peace Offering

_**Chapter Four - The Peace Offering**_

* * *

For the rest of the weekend, Jillian hung out with Erica as they decorated her new bedroom and watch a lot of silly girly movies. She had hoped watching those type of movies would help keep a certain best friend from her mind and it did until they watched one where the male friend was secretly in love with his female friend. She tilted her head to the side as she watch the story unfold on the screen. Some of the situations reminded her a lot of her and Isaac, making her wondering again if he was jealous the night before at the lacrosse game.

Erica watched Jillian's reaction during the movie and had a good idea what she was thinking about. She silently patted herself on the back for picking out the movie for them to watch. Things were going exactly how she had planned them. Now she hoped after watching the movie it would cause Jillian to want to reach out to Isaac, which it did, but unfortunately he never answered her or texted back.

Jillian couldn't help but wonder if things were ok between them, he said they were, but if things were ok why was he avoiding her all weekend?

Finally monday rolled around, which was her first official day at Beacon Hills High, she knew she should feel nervous, starting a new school year usually stressed her out, but all she could think about was talking to Isaac. She knew he couldn't avoid her at school.

After picking up her schedule and finding her locker, she and Erica were walking down the hallway, heading for their first class. When they walked past the bulletin board and Jillian saw a poster about the Beacon Hills swim team, she paused for a minute then walked over to it to get a closer look.

"Are you going to join?" Erica asked, as she stood beside her cousin.

"I dunno." Jillian said, as she thought about it. She loved to swim. She was on the swim team at her last school and loved it, but she was a little nervous about joining a new team.

At her old school she was use to the pool, her team mates and her coach, but here she would have to start all over. Plus she was worried about the time it would take away from being with her cousin or Isaac. They were the main reason why she wanted to come back to Beacon Hills, she had missed them, did she really want to get involved with something that would take her away from them?

"I think you should. You had a blast at your old school." Erica pointed out, remembering how excited Jillian was when ever she talked about being on the team.

"Yeah, but..."

"But nothing. You're doing it." Erica stated, as she reached into her bag to look for a pen. She grabbed a pen and handed it to Jillian then glanced back into her bag and mumbled out a curse word when she realized she forgot a book for her first class.

"What's wrong?" Jillian asked when she heard her cuss.

"I forgot my book. I got to run back to my locker before the bell rings." Erica said with a sigh.

"Well let's go get it then." Jillian said, planning to stick to her like glue. She knew how hard school was for Erica and now that she was back, she wanted to protect her at all times.

"No, I'll go cause I know what you're doing. You are just trying to get out of signing up for the swim team. I know you Jilly and I know how nervous you get in new surroundings, but I promise as soon as you jump in that pool you'll be completely comfortable and you'll be glad that you did it." Erica said, then added,"now sign that piece of paper and I'll meet you in class. Save me a seat ok?"

"Ok." Jillian said with a nod, as she flashed her a smile. She was happy that Erica pushed her to do this, if it wasn't for her, she probably would have just walked away.

She kept an eye on Erica as she made her way down the hall with her head down as she tried to avoid as many people as possible. Once she was out of sight, Jillian turned back to the board and took a deep breath before slowly released it as she took a step closer and placed the pen against the paper, getting ready to sign her name.

"What's this I see, are you trying to join my team?" She heard someone say from behind her. She pulled back her hand then turned her head to see that it was Jackson who had spoken to her.

"Your team?" Jillian asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yep, my team." Jackson said back with his trademark smirk.

"Funny, I didn't realize the team was called 'Jackson's team'." Jillian said, then joked,"what is your mascot? A jackass?"

Jackson chuckled as he shook his head then said,"you know JB, I'm starting to think you hate me or something."

"I don't hate you. How could I? You're _the_ Jackson Whittemore. You have your own swim team. No one else has their own swim team which makes you the coolest ever." Jillian said sarcastically.

"You're only saying that so I will let you on my team." Jackson joked, then added,"and it worked. You may join."

"Oh, my God! Really? Oh thank you Jackson, thank you." Jillian said dramatically, as she fanned her face and pretended to cry.

Jackson laughed at her antics then said,"besides seeing you in a bathing suit will definitely be a highlight of my day."

"Typical jerk remark." Jillian mumbled, as she rolled her eyes.

"Are you calling me a jerk?" Jackson asked. He thought back to a few days ago when he spoke to her at the hospital and she called him corny, then he added,"first I'm corny, now I'm a jerk. Do you even know any nice words?"

"Hm, not right now. Check back with me later." Jillian joked.

"How about I make you a deal." Jackson suggested, then added,"we'll have our own little swim meet. If I win, you have to be nicer to me."

"And what if I win?" Jillian asked.

Jackson smirked and locked eyes with her as he said with a flirty tone,"you can have whatever you want."

Jillian bit her bottom lip and smiled as she glanced down at the floor for a minute then looked back up and asked,"when do you want to do this?"

"I'll give you a few days to practice. Make it fair for you." Jackson offered.

"Oh how nice of you. But I don't need to practice. I'm going to swim circles around you." Jillian joked, although she was secretly glad he was giving her a few days. It had been a few months since she had been in a pool and needed some time to practice but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"I guess we'll see." Jackson said, as he grabbed her hand that was holding the pen then moved it over to the bulletin board so she could sign her name to the piece of paper.

As she begin to sign her name, he leaned in toward her to whisper in her ear, sending a tingle down her spine as he said,"see you soon JB."

Jillian bit her bottom lip as she turned her head to watch him walk down the hall like he owned the place. She looked back at the sign in sheet as she finished writing out her name. Maybe joining the swim team wasn't such a bad idea after all.

_...ooo..._

For the first half of the day, Jillian attended her classes and was disappointed each time to see Isaac wasn't in any of them, although thankfully Erica was which gave her someone to sit with, she was still determined to talk to him before the end of the day though which was why she bought a pack of m&m's and spent her lunch period looking for him.

Erica had offered to help look for him too, but Jillian knew she hated being around everyone during lunch and would rather spend her lunches alone in the quiet library getting caught up on her school work. Most people didn't realize that she was a little behind everyone from the times she had to be hospitalized cause of her epilepsy. The last thing she wanted to do was have to repeat a grade. Being in school was already hard enough, she didn't want to have to stay longer than she had to.

After making sure Erica was ok in the library alone, Jillian begin to roam around the school, candy in hand, as she looked for her absent best friend. After checking the cafeteria and a few hallways, she finally made her way outside and saw him sitting under a tree alone.

"Finally." Jillian mumbled to herself, as she made her way over toward him.

Issac, hearing someone approach him, glanced up and squint his eyes when the sun hit his face and saw Jillian standing above him holding out a bag of m&m's toward him.

"What's that for?" Isaac asked her.

"It's a peace offering." Jillian answered.

"A peace offering for what?" Isaac asked confused.

"For whatever I did that made you mad at the lacrosse game." Jillian said softly, hating that there was a problem between them.

Isaac sighed as he looked down at the ground, he hated making her feel bad, especially since she didn't actually do anything. He shouldn't be surprised that Jackson would be interested in her, just look at her, she was beautiful and an amazing person, something he had known for years. He knew the day would come one day, probably sooner than he wanted, when some guy would sweep her off her feet and he would lose her, he just didn't want that guy to be Jackson. She deserved better than that.

"I told you, you didn't do anything wrong." Isaac said, as he looked back up at her.

"Well still, I just want to make sure we are ok." Jillian said, then added,"so just think of this as my way of saying I'm sorry for whatever."

"You're forgiven." Isaac said with a smile. He took the bag from her then added,"even though you didn't do anything."

Jillian smiled back as she sat down on the ground in front of him. As soon as she was comfortable she held out her hand and raised her eyebrows as if she was waiting for something. Isaac looked at her with a confused expression until he realized what she wanted, his m&m's.

Isaac rolled his eyes then said,"I thought these were mine, not yours."

"They are yours, but I figured since I was your best friend in the whole wide world you would want to share with me." Jillian said, as she shot him a sweet smile. She even went as far as to flutter her eyelashes at him.

Isaac watched her for a second, pretending to think about it, then said,"nah, not really."

Jillian gasped in surprise at his comment then asked,"do I have to jump on you again and steal the bag?"

Isaac raised his eyebrows and tried not to grin when he thought back to her first night in town when she had jumped on him to steal the bag of m&m's. He honestly wouldn't mind having her wrapped around him again, but he couldn't let her know that. He figured if she knew how he really felt it would freak her out and he'll lose her.

He wasn't all that surprise when he saw her raise up to her knees, planning to tackle him. He laughed out loud then poured some of the candy in his hand, picking out any of the blue ones, then handed them to her as he said,"here you go. Now settle down Jilly."

"I knew you were scared of me." Jillian teased, as she popped a few pieces of the candy into her mouth.

Isaac snorted at her comment then said,"in your dreams Jilly B."

The two sat in silence for a minute or two until she cleared her throat and asked,"so, are you enjoying your candy?"

"Yeah, why?" Isaac asked, feeling suspicious.

"Cause I need to ask a favor." Jillian said, as she shot him a sweet smile.

Isaac didn't say anything as he looked at the bag of candy. He turned it over in his hand looking at it from every angle until she shot him a confused look and asked what he was doing.

"I didn't realize this bag had strings attached to it." Isaac joked, then added,"I thought this was a peace offering present."

"Well originally it was, but then you said we were ok and there was no need in a peace offering so now it's a favor present cause I need a huge favor." Jillian explained, as she shot him a hopeful smile.

"Ok. What do you want?" Isaac asked with a sigh.

"Ok you remember how I have mentioned I use to be on the swim team at my old school?" Jillian asked. After he nodded his head she continued,"well I have decided to join the swim team here."

"I think that's great." Isaac said, he knew how much fun she had on her old team. Plus as wrong as it was, he couldn't help but think about how nice it would be to see her in a swim suit.

He cleared his throat and pushed that thought aside, hoping there was no way she could know what he was thinking, then added,"where does the favor come in though? Wait, you're not going to ask me to join are you? Cause there is not enough m&m's in the world that would get me to join the swim team."

Jillian laughed then said,"no, that's not the favor."

"What is it then?" Isaac asked, confused.

"Can I came to your house today and practice in your pool?" Jillian asked, as she folded her hands, preparing to beg if she had to.

Isaac thought about it for a minute, it's not that he didn't want to, he didn't mind at all. The two of them, along with their brothers use to swim in his pool all the time, but he was trying to remember if his dad would be home or not. The last thing he wanted was his dad around her.

He thought back to his brief conversation with his father that morning, who informed him that he had some errands to run after work, which Isaac knew meant he would be at the bar for hours drinking before he stumbled home.

Isaac looked over at her as he nodded his head and said,"yeah that's fine."

"Really?" Jillian asked happily.

"Yeah, it's cool. We'll go to my house after school." Isaac said, actually happy to be spending more time with her.

Jillian squealed out happily as she raised up and threw her arms around his neck, pouncing on him and knocking them back onto the ground, as she called out,"you are the greatest friend ever!"

"Yep, that's me. The best friend." Isaac said softly, as he reached up and pushed a lock of her hair behind her ear.

Jillian bit her lip as she looked down at him and tried to read the expression on his face but was unable to. The two stared at each other for a few minutes until the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch.

Jillian quickly stood up, feeling a flutter in her stomach from the moment they were just having. She cleared her throat then stuttered out,"well um, I uh, I guess I'll see you after school. Just meet me at my car, ok?"

Isaac nodded then said,"see you then Jilly."

Jillian gave him a small wave then turned around to walk away, a smile appearing on her face. She was actually excited about spending the afternoon with him. It had been a long time since they went swimming in his pool. They were just kids the last time they did that but they were definitely not kids now.

She wasn't a lanky, tomboy anymore and he wasn't so short and scrawny. He was taller and muscular after playing lacrosse the last few years and she couldn't help but think about how he would look shirtless now compared to then, causing her to feel a tingle down her spine at seeing him like that.

She felt herself blush as she came to a stop. She couldn't believe she had just thought of him in that way. He was her best friend, her best friend who is doing her a favor and all she could think about was how good he must look now. She was starting to think she needed help and a lot of it.

_...ooo..._

For the rest of the school day, as hard as she tried, she couldn't get Isaac off of her mind. What was up with the fluttering earlier? Why was she so excited to spend the day swimming with him? What the hell was going on between them lately?

Those were just some of the questions running through her mind as she sat in her desk and waited for her last class to begin. Maybe she was just lonely, she had not been single this long in a while so maybe she was just wanting someone to go out with.

In her old town, pretty much once she grew breast and gained some curves guys were asking her out left and right. She was never serious with any of them though, mostly she only went on one date with them cause she realized right away there was nothing there. There was one guy she was sorta serious with and she did like him, but they never really connected emotionally. The only guy she had ever really bonded with like that was Isaac.

She was so lost in thought she did not notice someone had sat down behind her until she heard them say her name to get her attention. She turned around and smiled when she saw it was Jackson.

"So are you having second thought yet?" Jackson asked her, bringing up their bet from earlier.

"Nope. You're going to get your ass kicked Whittemore." Jillian said, as she flashed him a smile.

"We'll see about that." Jackson said back. He leaned closer toward her, his eyes roaming over her face, and grinned when he saw her bite her bottom lip. He couldn't stop himself from glancing down to look at her lips for a second before looking back into her eyes.

"Have you decided on what you want from me yet?" He asked quietly for only them to hear.

"Um, I-I uh..." She began to stutter. She froze and held her breath when she saw him look down at her lips again. The two were so close together she could feel his minty breath again her cheek.

He titled his head to the side with a smirk on his face as he watched her try to speak again, but before she could say another word, the two heard someone clear their throat and they looked over to the right to see a annoyed Lydia with a brunette girl, that Jillian had never seen before, standing beside her.

Lydia slid into the desk beside Jackson, while the other girl sat down in the desk beside Jillian, she flashed Jillian a friendly smile which she returned back.

"So what were you two talking about?" Lydia asked, hoping she didn't sound as jealous as she felt.

"JB is joining the swim team. We were talking about that." Jackson answered with a sigh, as he sat back in his desk. He didn't like Lydia questioning him on what he was doing, but he had learned a long time ago it was best to give her an answer just to shut her up instead of trying to argue with her.

"Oh, how convenient. Now you two will have to spend tons of time together, I assume." Lydia said bitterly.

"Well considering we'll be on the same team then yeah, we will." Jackson said back like it was no big deal, which in his mind it wasn't, she was just making it a big deal.

"Funny, I never knew Barfy was into swimming." Lydia sneered, as she looked over at Jillian.

"It's Jillian, actually." She said, as she turned her head to look at Lydia, then added,"and to answer your question I love to swim. I was on the swim team at my last school and since your so curious about my history I'll also add in that I get my love of the water from my big brother. Who was also on the swim team here. Is there anything else about my life you want to know?"

Jackson softly chuckled at her comment and saw Lydia roll her eyes with a scoff as she sat back in her desk. Apparently being bitchy toward Jillian wasn't going to scare her off. She needed another plan and she knew the perfect one.

It was time to befriend her. Like the old saying goes _'keep your friends close but your enemies closer'_.

Lydia looked over at Jillian then said,"I'm sorry if I seemed bitchy. I was just curious. And I'm also sorry for the Barfy comment. I shouldn't call you that anymore. That was a long time ago."

Jackson felt his mouth drop open as he looked over at Lydia in surprise. She shrugged her shoulders as she asked innocently,"what?"

"I've never heard you apologize to anyone before. I didn't think you even knew that word." Jackson said back.

Lydia rolled her eyes but didn't comment back, instead she looked at Jillian then said,"I really like your bag by the way."

Jillian raised her eyebrows at Lydia's sudden mood change and wondered what she was up to, but if she was going to make an effort to be nice then so would she. She looked down at her new purse then said,"thanks. My mom sent it to me from Italy. I got it in the mail this morning."

"Me, you and Allison should go shopping soon." Lydia suggested. She pointed to the girl in front of her, who was beside Jillian, then said,"that's Allison by the way. She just moved here from San Francisco."

Jillian looked over at the brunette and smiled as she said,"I'm Jillian, nice to meet you."

"You too." Allison said back smiling.

"So what do you say? Shopping after school?" Lydia suggested to the girls. She glanced at Jillian and added,"we'll find you a cute suit to make all the boys drool at practice."

"Thanks, but actually I have already plans today." Jillian said.

"What's more important than shopping?" Lydia asked with a scoff. To her nothing was more important.

"I'm hanging out with a friend." Jillian said back with a smile, as Isaac crossed her mind again.

Before Lydia could say back anything else, the teacher walked in and begin to talk. Jillian glanced at the clock, wishing her last class would fly by quickly. She was itching to jump into the cool water and think about nothing but swimming from one end to the other. Plus being with her best friend was an added bonus.

_'Her cute, shirtless, best friend' _She thought to herself, then felt her eyes widen. She looked down at her desk and felt her face heat up when she thought about Isaac like that again. What the hell was wrong with her?

She shook her head and quietly sighed. Yep she definitely needed help.

_...ooo..._

_a/n- hello readers! Hope you liked this chapter. I am have such a blast writing this story and I have some great things planned as the story goes on which is making me very excited. Thank you to everyone reading and/or adding the story. Also big thanks to Mkay-212, EmeraldSwan92, LionHeartMisfit, heartlessyukiXD, RHatch89, anonymouuuus, Lucy Greenhill, InlovewithTVD4ever, poorxbrokexcollegexkid, sillychick13, Danii, LynZann, dearlyfantastical5511, randi101 and Undeniable Weirdness for review! Happy reading! _

_Earlier I posted two sneak peeks of this chapter on my tumblr. If you don't want to miss any that I post then go to my profile and follow me on there if you are not already. Thank you so much to __LionHeartMisfit for telling me how to do that. I know I asked a lot a stupid questions so thank you for your patience and help =}  
_

_Also don't forget to check out the collab I am writing with my good friend Sage Londyn. It's called 'Once in a Blue Moon' The link to that is also on my profile.  
_


	5. Just Keep Swimming

_**Chapter Five - Just Keep Swimming**_

* * *

As soon as the bell rang, signalling the end of the school day, Jillian grabbed her books and without a word to anyone, rushed out of the classroom and made her way toward Erica's locker. When Erica saw her approach she flashed her a smile then reached back into her locker as she changed out her books. Jillian watched her for a few moments, then begin to tap her feet, as she continued to watch Erica pull out a couple of books then put a few more back in at a alarmingly slow speed or at least that is the way it felt to Jillian.

She sighed as she folded her arms across her chest then asked,"are you almost done?"

"Yeah. Jeez what's the big hurry?" Erica asked back.

What was the big hurry? That was actually a great question that Jillian could not answer. She didn't know why she wanted to hurry and meet up with Isaac. It most definitely was not cause she was itching to see him shirtless, she refused to admit that was the reason, even if she did think about that a lot during her last class, as much as she hated to admit it.

No maybe the reason she was rushing was cause she just missed being in a pool, she missed swimming. That had to be it right?

"There's no rush. I just.. I.. well we're meeting Isaac at the car, remember?" Jillian said back, making it seem like she didn't want to keep him waiting.

"Oh right, so you two can go swimming alone at his house." Erica said with a pleased smile on her face. She was happy that the two were spending time together. Maybe this would be the time they finally stopped being so stubborn and admit their feelings for each other or at least she hoped so.

"We're not going to be alone." Jillian pointed out, then added when Erica shot her a confused look,"you're going with us right?"

Erica snorted with laughter then said,"you're joking right? You know I hate swimming. Which you can blame on your brother and Camden since they just loved throwing us in the pool when we were little."

"Yeah, that was always so much fun." Jillian said, as she thought about the old days. She use to love when one of the older boys lifted her up and tossed her into the pool. She could see how to some it would be traumatic but to her it was fun.

"Maybe for you, since you were always a water baby. I swear you should have been a mermaid or something." Erica joked.

"Mermaids don't exist, silly." Jillian said back with a laugh.

"Well if they did you would be one with as much time as you have spent in the water." Erica said back with a laugh of her own.

"And you would be a vampire or something, with the way you stay inside your dark room all the time." Jillian teased, then added,"it is ok to get sunlight sometimes you know, it won't hurt you."

Erica rolled her eyes and laughed. If it had been anyone else she would think they were insulting her, but she knew Jillian was just kidding around. She pulled out another book then said,"can't I be something other than a vampire? Vampires are so lame."

"You can be whatever you want to be." Jillian said sincerely, as she flashed her a smile, then added,"like for example you can be the girl that hurries up so we can go."

Erica laughed as she grabbed one last book then shut her locker door as she said,"ok fine. Let's go. Wouldn't want you to be late for your Isaac date."

Jillian rolled her eyes as the two walked down the hallway toward the parking lot then said,"it is not a date."

"You two are going to be hanging out for a couple of hours, alone and half-naked. How is that not a date?" Erica asked with a laugh.

Jillian laughed back then said,"cause this is me and Isaac. I mean yeah if it was some other guy and we planned to go swimming together it might could be a date, but that's not what this is. He's just doing me a favor."

"How is he doing you a favor again? Cause it sounds like you are doing him a favor." Erica said, then added when she shot her a confused look,"you're going to be prancing around him in a bikini for hours. I guarantee that is like a dream come true for him."

"No it isn't." Jillian said with a laugh. When she saw Erica open her mouth to argue, she quickly added,"do I need to remind you that Isaac and I are just friends again? Or remind you how he doesn't see me like that?"

Before Erica could say anything again, she added,"besides who says I am wearing a bikini."

"Oh you are wearing a bikini and when you do I want you to pay close attention to the way he looks at you." Erica suggested, then added,"and if he doesn't look at you in a different way or if you don't feel any butterflies in your stomach then I will drop it."

"Butterflies?" Jillian asked softly, as she came to a stop. Remembering the times she had felt a little fluttering in her stomach when they looked at each other lately.

"Yeah, butterflies." Erica repeated, as she came to a stop and looked at her. When she saw the look on her face, she smiled and added,"wait.. you've already been feeling butterflies haven't you? Isaac gives you the flutters."

"What? No!" Jillian lied, as she felt her cheeks heat up and hoped Erica didn't notice, unfortunately for Jillian, she did.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you have not felt any butterflies around Isaac. Tell me that you have not been thinking to yourself what he looks like shirtless ever since you two planned your little pool date. Look me in the eye and tell me that then maybe I will believe you." Erica said, as she stood in front of Jillian, waiting to see what she would do.

Jillian raised her eyebrows, planning to do exactly what she said. She looked Erica right in the eyes and opened her mouth to speak, but realized it was harder then she thought and begin to stutter,"I, uh.. I didn't... I mean I-I haven't... we're friends, that's... you know what? This is crazy. I don't have to prove anything to you."

Jillian broke eye contact then begin to walk down the hall again as she added,"now come on. We got to go."

"You're avoiding." Erica said in a sing song voice, as she followed along behind her.

"And you're annoying." Jillian said back in the same tone, letting her know she was kidding around.

"Yeah but you love me." Erica said, as she caught up to Jillian with a smile on her face.

"Yes I do." Jillian said back, as she linked arms with her cousin as the two walked out of the school building and made their way toward Jillian's car, where Isaac was, leaning against it and waiting for them.

"Got the flutters now?" Erica teased, as she looked over at Jillian.

As hard as she tried, Jillian could not help but smile as she and Isaac locked eyes. She was not about to admit it right now to Erica, but she did feel the flutters. Instead she looked away from Isaac and looked at Erica as she chuckled then said,"shut up."

The two girls joined Isaac then they all climbed into the car as Jillian drove to Erica's house. The three teens made their way upstairs, Erica heading for her room, where she planned to stay for the rest of the day, leaving Jillian and Isaac standing in the hallway.

"Is Erica staying here or going with us or ..." Isaac begin to ask, his voice trailed off, as he nodded toward Erica's open bedroom door. He of course didn't mind if she tagged along, but he secretly hoped it was going to be just them.

"Nope, I'm not going." Erica called out, overhearing his question. She walked to her doorway and folded her arms across her chest as she leaned against her door frame then added,"it's going to be way to hot."

Isaac shot her a confused look, missing the warning look Jillian was sending Erica. Jillian knew what she was hinting at and just hoped Isaac didn't pick up on it, which thankfully for her it didn't seem like he was.

"What do you mean? It's not that hot today." Isaac pointed out.

"Oh trust me. It's going to be hot." Erica said with a grin, ignoring the look from Jillian.

Isaac looked over at Jillian, a confused expression still on his face, then turned back to look at Erica as he went to ask her what she meant by that, but before she could say a word, Jillian grabbed his hand then called out,"hey, you wanna see my room? We finished decorating it this weekend."

"Uh, yeah, sure." Isaac said, feeling like he was missing something. But he knew the two girls had always had their little secrets and insides jokes and just figured this was one of them and decided to drop it.

Jillian breathed a sigh of relief, happy that was over, then begin to lead him over toward the stairs that led to the attic, where her room was. Erica stayed where she was as she watched Isaac walking up the stairs first. She giggled when Jillian turned to look at her and mouth the words,_'not funny'._

Erica nodded her head, letting her know it was hilarious to her then watched as Jillian walked up the stairs behind him.

For a moment, she half thought about shutting them up in the attic, maybe then they would finally admit how they felt for each other, but she knew it was best not to push them that much. Dropping hints and pointing out things to Jillian to get her thinking about it all was one thing, but she didn't want to force a hook-up.

Once in the attic, Isaac stepped off to the side, giving her enough space to step into the room. He slipped his hands into his front pants pocket as he glanced around the small attic, which had been turned into her bedroom.

It wasn't much, just a small bed off to the side with a clothing rack across from it, pushed against the wall, where all of her clothes were hanging. Beside the rack she had a small dresser for the rest of her clothes. There was even a small window above the bed with a small bedside table under it. The color scheme was mostly white, which suited her perfectly. She was always a fan of different shades of white. Off-white, cream, Ivory, it didn't matter, she loved them all. Of course there was a little blue thrown in too, which was another favorite color of hers. But no matter where he looked, he saw Jillian, the room was definitely her.

"I know it's not much ..." Jillian begin to say, when she saw him looking around.

"It's perfect for you." Isaac said, as he looked over at her with a smile.

"But not for you though." She joked when she noticed he was hunched over to keep from hitting his head on the low ceiling.

"Yeah this room is not tall people friendly." Isaac joked back, as he glanced up at the ceiling.

"I have the perfect solution for that." Jillian said, as took a few steps toward him.

Isaac lowered his eyebrows in confused but before he could ask what she meant by that, he felt her push him back, causing him to fall back onto her bed. He looked up at her in surprise as he asked,"what did you do that for?"

"Now you won't hit your head." Jillian pointed out, as she plopped down beside him then added,"plus you get to feel how comfy my bed is."

Isaac smiled up at her as she laid her hand on his chest then rested her chin on it. Without even thinking about it, he wrapped a arm around her like he would normally do and rested his hand on the small of her back, his fingertips lightly brushing against her soft skin from her shirt riding up slightly in the back when she jumped on the bed.

She softly gasped when he touched her, not cause she didn't like it, quite the opposite actually. She bit her bottom lip and slowly breathed out, feeling goosebumps on her skin where his fingers were just causally laying. Just that little touch was driving her crazy, but she knew this was wrong. It felt oh so right, but was totally wrong.

Even if Erica had been trying to convince her lately that there could be something there between them, Jillian just couldn't see it. She and Isaac had been friends since they were kids. There have been plenty of times he could have said something but never have. Plus this wasn't the first time Erica had dropped hints about how cute she and Isaac were together, but just cause her cousin wanted it to happen didn't mean Isaac actually liked her that way. But even with that thought in her mind, she couldn't stop herself from sneaking a glance at him to see if he was being affected by this moment like she was.

She lowered her eyebrows, actually feeling a little disappointed to see that he was just glancing around her room like nothing was wrong. Like his heart wasn't racing or his skin wasn't on fire from one touch the way hers was.

She cleared her throat, getting his attention, then said nervously,"I guess um, I guess I'll get changed and then we can go."

"Sounds good." Isaac said with a smile. He waited until she stood up from the bed, with her back toward him, and walked to her dresser before he took a deep breath and slowly released it to calm his racing heart down. Every since his fingers accidentally touched her smooth skin he was about to lose control. He had to fight the urge to keep from pulling her shirt up further and running his fingers all over her back. Just that one little touch made him want to touch her over and over again, but instead he had to rest his hand in the same spot, afraid he would freak her out if he kept touching her and he definitely couldn't look at her, not now, so instead he settled for glancing around her room, hoping she had no idea about the thoughts running through his mind right now.

After grabbed a pair of blue jean shorts and a shirt, Jillian opened the top drawer, where she kept her swim suits and went to grab the only one piece suit she had in there until she remember what Erica said earlier about wearing a bikini. Deciding to test Erica's theory, she grabbed the first bikini she saw with a smile on her face, then turned around to face Isaac, who was still laying in her bed.

"Ok, got it." Jillian said, hinting to him it was time to leave so she could get changed.

When he still didn't move, she raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat, hoping that would get the point across, but when that still didn't work. She folded her arms across her chest then said,"kinda hard to change when you're still in the room Isaac."

"Hm.." Isaac said confused, still lost in his own thoughts until he realized what she was saying. "Oh... ooh, right sorry." He called out, his face turning red as he quickly jumped out of her bed and accidentally hitting his head on the ceiling, causing him to curse out loud.

"Oh my God, are you ok?" Jillian asked with a small chuckle, as she rushed over toward him.

He bit his lip to keep from groaned out loud as she begin to run her fingers through his hair to make sure he was ok. He didn't know what was going on with them today, they had always had a touchy type of friendship, but it felt different today, which he wasn't complaining about, but he knew he needed to get away from her and fast, before he did something dumb, like throw her on her bed while running his hands all over her body and ... yep it was definitely time for him to leave the room.

"I-I'm ok. I'm ok." Isaac stuttered, as he removed her hands from his hair and took a quick step back, hitting his head again.

Jillian gasped in surprise and went to step toward him until he held up his hands to stop her then said,"I'm good, just get undressed."

He felt his eyes go wide when he realized what he said, he saw her raise her eyebrows at him and chuckle at his comment, which was a good sign to him. At least he didn't freak her out with his stupid comment.

"I mean get changed and I'll-I'll be downstairs." He added.

Jillian nodded, telling him ok, and laughed again as she watched him walk down the stairs to leave her room. She bit her bottom lip then smiled as she looked down at the bikini in her hand. Hopefully by the end of the day she'll know if he had more than friendly feelings for her or not.

_...ooo..._

After changing into her bathing suit, shorts and tank top, Jillian and Isaac left the house and made their way to his house. After they walked inside, he told her to go on back while he went to change. She paused for a moment to watch him run up the stairs to his room then with a smile on her face she made her way through the house. It had been awhile since she had been in the Lahey house, but she remember where everything was. She stepped into the kitchen and made her way toward the sliding glass door that would take her out back to the pool.

She stood at the pool edge and glanced around, a smile still on her face, as she remember all the hours she, Isaac, Sam and Camden use to spend in this pool. It made her miss her big brother, who at twenty-four was still at college since he kept change his major. It also really made her miss Camden, who she always like another brother to her.

With all the happy memories on her mind, she carefully dipped her toe in the water to test the temperature. The water was a little cooler then she thought it would be, but she still couldn't wait to jump in and begin to swim some laps. She was so lost in her own thoughts she never heard Isaac walk out of the house to join her. When he saw her standing at the end of the pool with her back toward him, he couldn't stop himself from sneaking up behind her and pushing her, clothes and all, into the pool.

Jillian screamed out in surprise as she felt herself falling into the water. When she felt her feet hit the bottom, she pushed herself up, breaking the water's surface, as she gasped for air. She looked up at a laughing Isaac, in a pair of long swim trunks and a white t-shirt, and couldn't help but chuckle herself as she called out,"you jerk! That was uncalled for."

"That's for pushing me earlier." Isaac pointed out, reminding her of when she pushed him back on to her bed, even thought never one really minded it.

She held up her hand as she said,"you could at least be nice enough to pull me out."

"Fine." Isaac said, as he grabbed her hand and went to pull her out, but instead he felt her pulling him toward her, causing him to fall into the pool behind her.

He shot up to the surface and wiped the water from his face as he said,"now that was mean."

"No that was payback." Jillian said, as she turned around to face him. "And so is this." She called out, as she put her hands on top of his head and pushed him down under the water.

She threw her head back and laughed out loud until she felt him grab her leg and pull her down under the water with him. While the two were under, she playfully pushed him away as he reached out to grab her. By the time the two broke the surface, her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs around his waist while his arms were around her back holding her in place.

She begin to laugh again as she removed one of her arms to reach up and push her hair out of her face before opening her eyes and seeing how dangerously close his face was to hers.

"Now was that really necessary?" Isaac asked, referring to her dunking him under the water.

"Hey, you started it." Jillian pointed out with a laugh, then added,"you just better be glad I left my phone in the car or I would really be mad."

"Yeah right, you could never stay mad at me." Isaac pointed out, then added,"even when I lost your favorite stuffed animal years ago you still forgave me."

Jillian laughed as that memory hit her. She had been so upset when he had accidentally left her stuffed animal at a store after she let him borrow it. She cried for days, which made him feel terrible until he went out and got her a new stuffed animal, this one a cat since she had always wanted a real cat but her parents were allergic to them. He also shared his m&m's with her, giving her every single blue one in the bag until she finally stopped crying.

"Only cause you made it up to me." Jillian said back.

"So are you trying to say I have to make this up to you too?" Isaac asked.

"It wouldn't hurt." Jillian joked.

"Ok then. What do you want?" Isaac asked.

Jillian shyly smiled then bit her bottom lip as her eyes dropped down to look at his lips for a moment, seeing a drop of water falling from them. That was actually a good question, what did she want? Did she actually want to kiss him?

Her body was screaming 'yes', but her mind was telling her 'no'. It was warning her that this would change everything and possibly for the worst. What if with one kiss she ruined a life-long friendship? She knew she couldn't handle that, she could not handle losing Isaac completely from her life.

"So what do you want?" Isaac asked again, a little softer this time, as he moved his face a little closer to hers. He saw her eyes glance down, it was a quick glance, so quick that for a minute he thought he had imagined it until he saw her do it again.

She wanted to yell out _'you'_ then grabbed him by the back of the head and slam her lips against his, but she couldn't do it. She was way to scared to take that step. Instead she looked up at him then said,"you can take me for ice cream after this. I'm dying for some mint chocolate chip."

"With chunks of brownies in it?" Isaac guessed.

"Do you even need to ask." Jillian said back with a laugh.

"Ok deal. We'll do that." Isaac said smiling. For a moment he thought, or more like hoped, she would have asked for something else. Especially after he caught her looking at his lips, but maybe she wasn't looking for the reason he thought, maybe she thought she saw something on his lips or maybe she was just looking at something else all together. Either way he wasn't going to question her about it, he was to much of a coward to do that.

"Great! Let's get to swimming then." Jillian said, then added,"although first I need to get out of these wet clothes since someone so rudely pushed me in before I can get undressed."

Isaac ignored her comment and chuckled as he begin to walk toward the shallow end of the pool with her legs still wrapped around him. Once they were at the shallow end, she slid down and placed her feet on the bottom of the pool then grabbed the bottom of her wet tank top, struggling to pull it off.

Isaac froze as he watched the shirt rise up little by little, getting a teasing glimpse of her curvy body until she was finally able to pull the top completely off before tossing it to the side to lay by the edge of the pool. He couldn't help but notice how well the blue tie-dye bikini top fit her. She definitely wasn't his lanky, tomboy friend anymore.

When he heard her groan out in frustration, he quickly pulled his eyes away from her chest and looked up at her face as he asked her what was wrong.

"Ugh! My stupid shorts are stuck to me and I can't get them off." Jillian said, as she groaned again. Normally she had no problem slipping them off, but now that they were wet, thanks to Isaac, the wet denim was sticking against her skin like glue.

Isaac watched her wiggle around for a few minutes, she was finally able to push them down a little passed her hips, giving him a peek of the bikini bottom she had on underneath, until they got stuck again. He cleared his throat then said,"here, let me help."

Jillian gasp in surprise when he placed his hands on her waist and picked her up to sit her down on the edge of the pool. She looked down at him, her skin still tingling from where his hands were against her bare skin for a moment.

"Lean back." Isaac said, as he glanced up at her for a minute before grabbing on to both sides of her shorts.

"O-Ok." She mumbled, as she leaned back on her elbows and watched as he tugged the shorts down over her hips. He raised his eyes up at her, waiting for her to lift up so he could pull the shorts the rest of the way off.

She placed a foot on his shoulder, needed something push up against as she raised her butt up from the ground and waited for him to pull the shorts all the way down her long legs. His eyes glanced over to see the small cluster of freckles on her left hip, his fingers itching to trace out a pattern with them, then he quickly looking away before he got caught and tossed the shorts over toward where her shirt was.

"There you go." Isaac said, as he fought the urge to check her out again.

"Thank you." Jillian said, as she continued to lean back on her elbows while she lazily kicked her feet in the water. She was waiting to see if he would check her out like Erica suggested he would, but was a little disappointed to see that he wasn't. He kept his eyes on her face, never going past her neck.

She had no idea though how hard it was for him not to let his eyes roam over her body again, he wanted to so badly but figured it would creep her out if he was openly staring at her.

Needing something to distracted himself before he slipped up and did something stupid, like begin drooling over her breast, he turned away from her and grabbed his wet t-shirt and tried to peel the shirt off from his skin as he begin to pull the heavy material up. He heard her offer to help then heard her dropped back down into the pool. He felt her hands brush against his as she grabbed the shirt from his hands and continued to pull it over his head.

Once the shirt was finally off and he could see again, he noticed her looking at something with a worried expression on her face. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong but before he could say a word, she surprised him by reaching out to touch him. Her fingertips barely grazing his skin, making everywhere she touched tingle, as she quietly asked,"does it hurt?"

"What? Isaac asked confused, as he looked down and finally saw what she had been looking at. It was a faded bruise that was near his ribs, he was given the bruise days ago and thankfully it wasn't hurting anymore which was why he had forgot all about it.

He nodded his head, having a hard time forming words as she continued to caress his skin. He cleared his throat then finally said,"n-no. It doesn't h-hurt."

She raised her eyes to look at him as she said,"good, but just to make sure..."

Isaac lowered his eyebrows in confusion, wondering what she meant, until he saw her lean forward and press her lips against his skin, right on top of the bruise. His breath caught in his throat and his eyelids fluttered shut as he felt her soft lips move across his skin as she left a few light kisses around the bruised area. He thought it felt good before when she was touching his skin, which it did, but nothing compared to feeling her lips against his skin. He felt goosebumps pop up, not only where her lips touch, but all over his body.

When he felt her pull back, he finally released the breath he had been holding and opened his eyes, surprise to see her staring right back at him. He nervously licked his bottom lip before saying,"w-why did you do that?"

She felt a smile appear on her face from seeing his reaction, that had to mean something right?

Jillian shrugged like it was no big deal then said,"don't you remember when we were little and if one of us got hurt the other one would kiss the boo-boo away?" She paused for a moment and watched as he slowly nodded his head, then she added,"well I was kissing away the pain. You're all better now."

"Oh. Thanks." Isaac breathed out, still finding it hard to speak after what just happened. She had no idea what that little kiss did to him.

"No problem." Jillian said back with a smile, then asked,"you ready to swim now?"

Isaac looked over at her with wide eyes, he could barely move after the little moment they had, he knew there was no way he would be able to swim. He stuttered out a excuse, trying to tell her he would just watch, but when she poked her lip out to beg him, he finally gave in. The two raced across the pool a few times, Jillian easily beating him since he, in her own words, wasn't even trying. It wasn't that he wasn't trying, it was the fact that his legs still felt like jello after feeling her lips on him.

After she fussed at him for the millionth time, he finally kicked it up and begin to swim faster, making it harder for her to beat him. He won the next few races but she was able to win the very last one, which in her opinion was the hardest one since both of them were pushing it as hard as they could by that point. She rested her arms on top of the edge of the pool with a proud smile on her face as she tried to catch her breath. Isaac swam over to her, laying his arms beside hers as they both rested for a few minutes.

"I think it's safe to say you're definitely going to make the team." Isaac said, as he smiled over at her.

"Thanks." Jillian said, as she smiled back, then added,"and thanks for practicing with me. Now not only am I'm going to make the team, but I am so going to kick Jackson's ass."

"Jackson?" Isaac asked confused.

"Yeah, Jackson." Jillian said, then explained,"when I was signing up, he approached me and we ended up making a bet. He told me he would give me a few days to practice, which I lied and said I didn't need it when really I do cause I really want to beat him."

Isaac scoffed as he shook his head, feeling a little disappointed. He thought she wanted to come over to spend time with him but of course it was all about Jackson and her stupid childhood crush.

"Let me guess if you win you want him to take you out." Isaac said a little harsher than he meant.

"What? No! I don't want to go out with Jackson." Jillian said back honestly.

"Yeah right." Isaac said as he rolled his eyes, then added,"I know dating him would be like a dream come true. I remember how '_in love'_ with him you were years ago."

"I had a crush on him. I was never in love with him, there is a difference." Jillian pointed out.

"So you don't have a crush on him anymore?" Isaac asked with a hopefully expression on his face.

"He has a girlfriend." Jillian stated.

"That's not a answer." Isaac said, feeling a little bummed again.

"I dunno, I mean maybe there is still a little crush there. I had one on him for so long it's hard to just stop and I can't deny that the attention I get from him now is nice..." She begin to say. Isaac felt his mood drop the more she explained until she added,"but I wouldn't date him. Even if he was single."

"Really?" Isaac asked surprised, as a smile begin to appear on his face. That one little statement turned his mood completely around.

Jillian nodded her head then said,"I have dated a Jackson before and am not looking to do it again." She paused for a moment then continued,"back at my old school I dated the most popular boy. He was cocky and sure of him self, a lot like Jackson and yeah we had fun but we never really connected."

"It's easy to find someone you are attracted to and can have fun with, but I want more than that." She added, then said softly,"I want a guy who makes my heart race. A guy who no matter how hard I try I can't get him off of my mind. I want him to be the first thing I think of in the morning and the last thing at night. I want him to give me butterflies and make my skin burn with one touch."

She smiled when she thought about the feelings he was giving her lately, even now with their arms inches away from each other, her skin was tingling. She turned her head to look at him and waited until he looked back at her before she finished saying quietly,"I want someone who knows me."

"Like someone who knows you only like blue m&m's? Someone who knows that you refuse to eat popcorn unless there are junior mints in it? Someone who knows you use to turn off a movie before a sad scene happened so Erica would believe that all stories had a happy ending or someone who knows you cried every night for a month after your brother left for college?" Isaac asked.

Jillian smiled then said,"exactly. I want someone who gets me. Someone I connect with."

"Have you ever felt a connection with someone before?" Isaac questioned.

"Just one person." Jillian answered, as she turned her head to look at him again, hoping he would realize she meant him.

Isaac was silently hoping she did mean him, but was to afraid to ask, he didn't think his heart would be able to take it if she named some other guy's name. Instead he slowly nodded his head then said,"that's good that you uh, that you have a connection with someone."

Jillian smiled then opened her mouth to tell him she was talking about him, but before she could say a word, he glanced up at the sky, seeing the sun begin to set, then added,"you know it's getting kind of late and we've been in this pool for hours. We should probably get out."

"Yeah, plus we still have that date." Jillian said, reminding him about how he owes her ice cream for pushing her in the pool earlier. When she saw his eyes slightly widen at the word _'date'_ she nervously added,"I-I don't mean _'date'_ date, I just mean going for ice cream. Un-Unless you don't want to."

Isaac slowly nodded his head, his heart about to jump out of his chest when she said the word _'date'_. For a moment he wondered if he should ask her out on a date, a real one. With the way things were going between them maybe he should make a move, but he just couldn't do it.

What if he was reading all the signals wrong? Not only would he be embarrassed but it would ruin everything between them and things would never be the same. He would hate for that to happen, he would hate it if he lost her.

When she saw him hesitate, she pushed back from the wall of the pool and shrugged like it was no big deal as she said,"it's ok. We can go later. Like you said, it's getting late. Plus I still have a ton of homework to do, so I should... I should go."

"Ok yeah... that's.. that's fine." Isaac said, as he watched her swim over toward the ladder.

He couldn't help watching as she pulled herself out of the pool. She reached back to fix her bikini bottoms then threw her head back to shake out the water from her hair. He bit his bottom lip as he watched beads of water rolling down her body, rolling over every part he would love to touch but knew he couldn't. Then as if that wasn't bad enough, he saw her bend over as she picked up her semi-wet clothes. She was killing him and she didn't even know it.

He was so lost in his own thoughts, he didn't notice she had turned around to face him until she spoke up and asked,"are you coming?"

"What? No! I... No I'm not." Isaac quickly said, thinking she meant something else.

She shot him a confused expression then said,"I thought you were getting out of the pool too?"

"Wha-yeah... yeah I'm-I'm getting out." Isaac said, finally understanding what she was asking. He dunked under the water for a minute, hoping the cool water would cool off his hot face cause of his stupid, embarrassing comment.

By the time he stepped out of the water, she was shaking out her clothes, trying to get out some of the remanding water with a groan.

"I am so not looking forward to putting these cold, wet clothes back on." Jillian said, then glanced over at him as she added sarcastically,"thanks again Isaac."

He couldn't help but chuckle at the pout on her face. He didn't regret pushing her in though, they use to do things like that all the time and he knew secretly she had loved it too, but he did feel bad about her having to drive all the way back to Erica's in wet clothes.

With that thought in mind, he told her to stay put and he'll be right back. He ignored her as she asked him why then rushed inside the house to run up to his room and grab her a set of dry clothes.

After he was gone, Jillian shook her head with a chuckle then turned back toward the pool, her back to the house, and watched the small ripples in the water anytime a slight cool breeze blew as she waited for him to come back.

A few moments later, she heard someone walking up behind her, thinking it was him, she turned around with a smile on her that quickly disappeared when she saw it wasn't Isaac, instead it was his father.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Mr. Lahey asked, as his eyes roamed over her body making her instantly feel uncomfortable.

"H-Hi Mr. Lahey." Jillian said shyly, as she folded her arms across her chest trying to cover herself the best she could. She glanced around looking for a towel until she remembered she didn't have one. Neither she or Isaac thought to grab one before jumping into the pool.

At hearing her speak, he took a closer look at her then said,"wait a minute... is that little Jillian Bennet?"

"Yes s-sir, it's me." Jillian said, feeling a chill down her spine the longer he stared at her.

Mr. Lahey had always intimidated her, mainly cause she knew how violent he could be. She might not have ever seen him actually hit Camden or Isaac, but she had seen the bruises afterwards and had heard him yelling at them numerous of times.

"Isaac told me you moved back to town. I've never seen him so giddy before but I see why now." Mr. Lahey said, then added as he checked her out again,"you sure did grow up since the last time I saw you."

"Thanks." Jillian mumbled, trying to be polite, then added nervously,"I-I should go find Isaac to say bye. I need to get h-home."

"You should stay a while." Mr. Lahey said, as he took a step toward her, then added,"you know you are always welcomed here. You use to spend so much time here this place was like your second home."

He paused for a minute then continued,"besides Isaac mentioned your parents were overseas, I want you to know while they are gone if you ever need a male figure for anything, I'm here."

Jillian felt sick to her stomach, if anyone else had made that comment it would have been sweet, but the way Mr. Lahey eyeballed her she knew he didn't mean it in a nice way, and if the comment wasn't bad enough, she could also smell beer coming from him. A drunk Mr. Lahey was never a good thing.

She glanced over his shoulder toward the house and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Isaac come out. As soon as his eyes locked with hers, he knew she was freaked out. He didn't know what his dad had said or did, but it must not have been good and all he could think about was protecting her.

Isaac quickly walked over toward her, standing in between her and his dad so he could cover her the best he could from his father's eyes. He handed her the clothes he had grabbed for her, one of his old t-shirts and a pair of sweatpants. She shot him a grateful smile as she quickly put the clothes on over her bikini, unfortunately even with his warm, comfy clothes on, she still felt naked and even dirty after being checked out by the older Lahey. She was going to have to take a long, long shower once she got home to feel clean again.

"Hey dad, you um, you remember Jillian right?" Isaac nervously asked his dad. When he nodded his head, he added,"I'm sorry I didn't ask before but I-I hope it's ok she came over."

"I was just telling her she is welcomed anytime." Mr. Lahey said, then added,"matter of fact, I was trying to talk her into staying for awhile."

"She... she can't..." Isaac begin to say at the same time she said,"I can't."

The two turned their heads to look at each other, Isaac noticing that she still looked freaked out and laid a hand on the small of her back, hoping to comfort her. She took a step toward him, melting into his side, and wrapped a arm around him to hold on tight to him.

"I was about to walk her to her car." Isaac added.

Mr. Lahey nodded his head, like he was giving her his permission to leave, then said,"make sure you come back soon."

"Ok." Jillian mumbled softly, as Isaac begin to lead her away from his dad. She stopped for a second to slip on her flip flops and grab her clothes then continued to walk toward the house with Isaac.

He kept his hand on her back, the two walking closely together, until they were finally at her car. He reached out to open the car door for her but instead of moving so she could sit down, he stayed still then looked up at her with a worried look on his face.

"Are you ok?" Isaac asked softly. After she nodded her head, he added,"are you sure? What did he say to you? Cause when I came out you looked terrified, Jilly."

"It wasn't so much what he said, it was how he said it and how ..."

"How what?" Isaac asked when she paused.

"How he looked at me." Jillian added quietly.

Isaac sighed, hating to see the scared look in her eye and there was nothing he could do about it. He leaned forward and rested his forehead against hers before he whispered,"I'm sorry."

Jillian raised her head to look at him with a surprised look on her face. She rested her hands on either side of his face, forcing him to look at her as she said,"hey, you have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong. I know how your dad is and I would never blame you for that."

Isaac softly smiled at her words then leaned forward to press his lips against her forehead. He left them there a few extra seconds then pulled back to look at her, his face only inches from hers.

"What was that for?" Jillian asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

She bit her bottom lip as he continued to look into her eyes, for a moment she thought and actually hoped, he would lean the rest of the way and kiss her, but he never did, instead he reached up and pushed a lock of her damp hair behind her ear before he finally answered her question.

"You kissed my bruise earlier to take away the pain and made me feel better. Now I'm doing the same."

"You're the bestest friend a girl could ever ask for, you know that right?" Jillian said, as she smiled at him.

Isaac tried not to frown when he heard the _'friend'_ word. He had kind of thought maybe something was happening between them until he heard that word again. He flashed her a forced smile then said,"you're my best friend too Jilly."

"Are you gonna be ok?" Jillian asked him, as she nodded her head toward his house, then added quietly,"I know how your dad can get when he's drunk."

"I'll be ok. He'll probably be passed out before I even get back inside." Isaac said, hoping he was right.

"If you need somewhere to run to, I'm here ok?" Jillian reminded him.

Isaac nodded his head then said with a relieved expression,"and you have no idea how happy I am that you are. I would be lost without you Jilly B."

Jillian genuinely smiled at his comment then stood up on her tip toes as she reached up to wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. She took a deep breath then slowly released it, sending a chill down his back at feeling her warm breath against his ear.

This wasn't the first time he had said something like that to her, but each and every time he did it made her smile to know she had that big of a impact on his life cause he made a big impact on hers.

She rested a hand on the back of his neck, lightly caressing his hair, as she whispered in his ear,"I would be lost without you too."

After a long hug, she pulled back and kissed his cheek then said,"call me if you need anything ok?"

"I will." Isaac promised her, as he took a step back so she could slide behind the wheel of her car.

Jillian gave him a quick wave as she pulled away from his house. She still wasn't completely sure if he had more then friendly feelings for her, she never saw him check her out like Erica suggested he would, but it did seem like they had a few heated moments, unless she was just imagining that. She also noticed he was nervous several times but wasn't sure if that was cause he liked her or cause she made him feel uncomfortable since she was practically throwing herself at him. In short she was still very confused.

She sighed as she ran a hand through her damp hair, she was to tired and drained to think about it anymore tonight. Between all the swimming and being ogled by Isaac's creepy, drunk dad, all she wanted to do was go home and crash for the rest of the night, which is pretty much what she did when she made it to the house.

She knew Erica wanted all the details but she honestly didn't have the energy to tell her. She promised she would tell her about it later, then headed for the bathroom to take a long hot shower. She put the shirt that Isaac let her borrow back on then crawled into her bed, the scent of him surrounding her and calming her down. With a smile on her face, she closed her eyes with Isaac heavily on her mind before she finally fell asleep.

_...ooo..._

_a/n - hello readers! I hope you liked this chapter, I hope so much fun writing it. I apologize about it being so long, I got carried away lol. But so far this is my favorite chapter! Thank you to everyone reading and/or adding the story. Also big thanks to Mkay-212, EmeraldSwan92, RHatch89, Lucy Greenhill, randi101, LynZann and Undeniable Weirdness for reviewing. Happy reading! _

_Don't forget to check out the collab 'Once in a Blue Moon' if you haven't already. Also don't forget to check out my tumblr page. I'm trying to be more active on there so don't hesitate to send me a message or something on there =}_


	6. Only In My Dreams

_**Chapter Six - Only In My Dreams**_

* * *

_Later that night Jillian was curled up in her bed sleeping until she felt the mattress on her bed dip down then felt someone lay down beside her. She slowly opened her eyes and glanced over her shoulder, seeing that it was Isaac._

_"Hi." Jillian whispered, as she wiped the sleep from her eyes._

_"Hi." Isaac said back, then added,"sorry I woke you up."_

_"It's ok." Jillian said while yawning. She turned over to face him, shutting her eyes again as she sleepily asked,"what are you doing here?"_

_Isaac reached out to push a lock of her blonde hair from her face as he answered,"you said if I needed you to come over."_

_"Right, yeah, I did say that." Jillian mumbled, remembering she had told him that earlier before she left his house since his dad was drunk. After that thought hit her mind, she snapped her eyes open and looked at him as she asked frantically,"oh my god, does that mean... did something happen? Are you ok?"_

_When she sat up in the bed to look at him closely, he softly smiled at her. It warmed his heart to see that someone actually cared about him. He reached up to lay a hand on the side of her face as he said,"I'm ok. Everything is ok."_

_"Oh.. ok, good." Jillian said with a smile. She titled her head, leaning into his hand, then said,"so uh, so why are you here then? Not that I mind, but, why?"_

_Isaac looked into her eyes then glanced down at her lips, he quietly groaned when she nervously licked her bottom lip. He looked back up into her eyes to answer her previous question,"cause I need you."_

_"You need... wait... what?" Jillian asked with a confused look as her heart begin to race._

_Isaac chuckled at the expression on her face, that confused yet hopeful smile on her face had to mean something right?_

_He sat up beside her and move his face closer to hers until his lips were inches from her as he whispered slowly,"I... need... you."_

_Jillian bit her bottom lip to hold back a huge grin. She opened her mouth to say something but before she could utter a word, she felt his lips crash into hers for a heated kiss._

_He moved his lips greedily against hers, like he had been wanting to do this forever and now that he was, he didn't want to stop, which was actually the truth. He had dreamed of kissing her like this for years and now that the moment was here he couldn't get enough.  
_

_The two kissed heavily for a few minutes more, he even pulled her toward him to sit in his lap, her legs wrapped around him, the two just wanting to be as close as possible to each other, until the two had to pull apart to give them a chance to catch their breath._

_She rested her forehead against his and put her hands on either side of his neck. She grinned before whispering out,"you kissed me."_

_She pulled back, a smile still on her face, as she added,"you finally kissed me."_

_Isaac bit his bottom lip as he nodded his head and looked down at her lips, wanting to kiss her again, but instead he looked up and said,"I've been wanting to kiss you all day. Do you know how hard it was being in that pool with you, you wearing that sexy bikini, and I couldn't touch you?"_

_"Who said you couldn't touch me?" Jillian asked softly, as she shot him a look, letting him know she wouldn't mind it at all if he did._

_Isaac raised his eyebrows in surprise, he couldn't believe he finally got up the nerve to kiss her and now not only did she kiss him back, but things were going a lot further then he ever thought and she was actually ok with it. He couldn't help but wonder... was this really happening?_

_Jillian looked at him as she nervously reached down to grab the bottom of the t-shirt she was wearing and pulled it over her head, causing his eyes to slightly widen when he saw she had nothing on under the shirt. Seeing her in a bikini top was one thing, seeing her completely naked from the waist up was completely different._

_"Wow." Isaac breathed out, as his eyes roamed over her chest. "You-You're... wow... you're beautiful." He softly added._

_Jillian blushed at his comment and lowered her head for a moment to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, then looked back up at him as she said with a chuckle,"and you're overdressed."_

_Without another word, she reached forward to grab the shirt he was wearing and pulled it off, dropping it on the floor with hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, lifting her eyebrows and shot him a playful grin, as she said,"now what are you going to do Lahey?"_

_Isaac smiled at her as he wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned toward her before answering softly,"I'm going to kiss you again."_

_He pressed his lips against hers again for another kiss as he raised up, with her legs still wrapped around him, and laid her back on to the bed. He broke the kiss to hover over her before adding,"and I don't plan to ever stop."_

_"Good..." Jillian said, as she reached up to lay a hand on the back of his neck, pulling his face toward her, before adding,"cause I don't want you to stop."_

_Isaac grinned at her words as he begin to kiss her again, causing her to moan when he ran a hand slowly down her side and slipped it into the pair of pajama bottoms she was wearing. She closed her eyes and softly said his name as he kissed across her jaw and down the side of her neck. She could faintly hear a ringing noise coming from somewhere and lowered her eyebrows in confusion._

_She had heard of people seeing fireworks during a kiss or maybe even something corny like 'hearing' angels sing, but never heard about hearing a ringing sound._

_"What is that?" Jillian mumbled, as the noise got louder._

It wasn't until he started kissing down her chest that she realized what the noise was, causing her to snap her eyes open and sit up in the bed. She groaned when she realized the noise she heard in her dream was her alarm clock ringing.

She reached over to turn it off then looked down at her empty bed, actually feeling a little disappointed that she was alone in her bed. Kissing Isaac had felt so real. She could swear that her skin was still on fire everywhere he had touched and her lips were tingling from all the heated kisses.

If kissing him for real was anything like her dream, then that was something she definitely wanted to experience, which could only mean one thing... she was slowly falling for her best friend.

"Oh crap." Jillian breathed out once that thought hit her.

Now that she realized her feelings for him one of two things would happen, either he feels the same and things will be ok or he doesn't and she would lose him. Either way things would never be the same again, one way or another their relationship was going to change and that thought terrified her.

With all of that on her mind, she dragged herself downstairs and walked into the kitchen, where she found Erica sitting at the small bar off to the side, eating a bowl of cereal.

"Hey, good mor- " Erica begin to say until she saw the look on her cousin's face. She lowered her eyebrows in confusing, then added,"hey, what's wrong?"

Jillian groaned as she sat down on the bar stool beside Erica, she rested her head on the counter then mumbled,"you don't want to know."

"Rough night?" Erica asked.

"Weird night." Jillian answered.

"You want to talk about it?" Erica asked before she took a bit of her cereal.

"I dreamed I kissed Isaac." Jillian answered.

Erica coughed, getting choked on her cereal. She quickly swallowed the food, then asked,"whoa... wait... what? You dreamed you kissed Isaac?"

"Yeah." Jillian answered, as she lifted her head, then added,"and I don't mean a little peek on the lips, I mean full-on making out, clothes coming off and all of that. But the main thing is I... I..."

"You what?" Erica asked when she paused.

Jillian turned her head to look at her cousin as she quietly admitted,"I liked it. A lot."

"Oh, my God! Oh, my God! This is awesome!" Erica said out excitedly, then added,"this is the greatest news I have ever heard. You like him. You like Isaac."

"Yeah, but... but is this really great news?" Jillian questioned, as she stood up and begin to pace in front of the small bar Erica was sitting at. "I mean what if he doesn't feel the same?"

"He does." Erica answered.

"He does?" Jillian asked, then nervously added,"I mean has he- has he said that?"

"Well no... but he does." Erica said, as she stood up. She placed her hands on Jillian's shoulders, stopping her from pacing, then added,"I know he does. It's the way he looks at you."

Jillian sighed as she ran a hand through her hair, then said,"Erica, I know you want us together, I know you do, but real life isn't like a movie. You can't tell how he feels just by the way he looks at me. Besides I was in the pool with him for hours yesterday and he never checked me out, not even once like you said he would, so what do you make of that?"

"Maybe he checked you out when you weren't looking." Erica suggested with a shrug, then added,"but either way, you have to tell him. Talk to him. See how he feels."

"I can't." Jillian said, then added,"I can't ruin a life long friendship on a _'maybe'_ and a look. I just can't do it."

"Yeah but maybe you can ..."

"No." Jillian said interrupting her, then added,"I'm sorry Erica, but I can't say anything to him, at least not now, cause I just.. I can't lose him from my life if we're wrong."

Erica, deciding not to push her anymore about it, finally nodded her head in understanding. She was pretty sure about how Isaac felt about her, but just in case she was wrong she realized Jillian was right, there was too much history between the two to do anything without knowing his feelings first.

"So what are you going to do now?" Erica asked her.

"I have no idea." Jillian answered with a sigh.

_...ooo..._

After talking to Erica and still having no idea what to do, she finally went upstairs to get dressed for school. The last thing she needed was to be late cause she was so distracted, besides maybe school could be the thing that keeps her mind off of Isaac, if only for a little bit. At least that was what she was hoping.

Thankfully, she was able to keep him out of her mind for the first half of the day, she even hung out with Erica in the library to avoid having to see him for lunch, which she felt bad about, but she was worried she would say or do something wrong and ruin their friendship before she found out what his feelings were. She seriously needed to get her thoughts and feelings under control before she talked to him.

Now she was at her locker for only the second time that day, she tried to avoid going to it as much as she could in case Isaac was at it waiting for her or something, but when she turned the corner and saw that her locker was clear, she rushed over to it, quickly changing out her books before he walked by and saw her.

She was almost done grabbing the books she would need when she heard someone walking toward her. She hoped it was whoever had the locker beside her, but of course she wasn't that lucky. She could tell it was Isaac as soon as he leaned toward her to whisper out a greeting to her, his warm breath hitting her ear and giving her chills.

She quickly spun around, slamming her locker door shut, and said,"h-hi Isaac."

"Are you ok?" Isaac asked her, when he noticed how jumpy she looked.

"I haven't seen you all day and you look... you look different." He added, wanting to choose his words correctly. He didn't want her to think that he was saying she looked bad or something, although he couldn't help but think maybe telling her she looked different wasn't a good thing either, causing him to quickly add,"no, wait, I mean you look the same, you're just looking at me different right now and acting a little different. Is something wrong?"

"No, yeah, everything is fine." Jillian said, as she flashed him a smile, not wanting to worry him. "I just... I-I was busy today. Erica was... Erica needed help so I've been, ya know, helping her." She added, trying not to roll her eyes at how lame she sounded. What was wrong with her? She had never stumbled over her words like this with him, never.

"Oh, ok." Isaac said, feeling relieved. He didn't want to admit it to himself before, but he was starting to feel like she was avoiding him, even though he couldn't think of a reason why. As far as he could remember he didn't say or do anything stupid the day before at the pool to scare her away, he couldn't say the same about his dad, but he knew she didn't hold that against him, so he couldn't figure out what the problem was.

"So how did you sleep last night?" Isaac asked her, trying to make conversation.

"I.. Wh-What? Why? Why would you ask that?" Jillian stuttered out nervously, worried for a moment that he knew exactly what she dreamed about last night, even though she knew there was no way he could know.

"I was just asking." Isaac said, as he looked at he with a confused expression on her face, wondering what was wrong with her. "After all that swimming yesterday I think I passed out before my head hit the pillow. I was exhausted and I was just wondering how you slept." He explained.

"Oh, right, sorry." Jillian said, silently kicking herself. Of course that is what he meant. She thought back to the dream she had, the way it felt to feel his lips against hers, feeling his hands caress her skin, then she said with a smile,"I slept great last night. The best sleep ever."

"That's good." Isaac said, smiling at her. "So speaking of swimming yesterday..." He began to say, then paused for a minute to nervously clear his throat, before continuing,"I um... I just wanted to say it was fun and wondered if you wanted to do it again."

"Go swimming at your house?" Jillian questioned, then said,"yeah of course, you know I would love that, although I think yesterday was going to be our last semi-warm day for a while."

"Right, well, I mean we could do something else then. I do still owe you ice cream." Isaac said with a chuckle, reminding her of when he pushed her in the pool and she told him he now had to take her out for ice cream.

Jillian smiled at his comment then said,"yeah, yeah we can go for ice cream. When?"

"How about um, how about this weekend?" Isaac asked nervously, as he tried to ask her out on an actual date. He didn't know where he got the nerve to actually bring this conversation up, but he realized he had to go for it, he had to ask her out.

"Don't you have a lacrosse game Friday night?" She asked, reminding him of the away game he had, one she unfortunately couldn't attend.

"Yeah I do. So we can.. we can go Saturday?" Isaac suggested.

"I promised Erica we would watch movies and pig out Saturday afternoon." Jillian said, causing his face to fall slightly until she added,"but we can go that night."

"So me and you... Saturday night... just me and you going uh, going out?" Isaac asked, making sure he heard right.

"Yeah, me and you, Saturday night." Jillian said with a smile, as the bell begin to ring, signalling the start of class.

"Ok, see you Saturday." Isaac said smiling, as he took a few steps back to go to class. He thought about what he said then quickly added,"I mean of course we will see each other before Saturday, but you know what I mean."

"I do." Jillian said with a chuckle. She gave him a small wave then said,"see ya, Isaac."

Isaac smiled at her and waved back before he turned around and walked down the hallway, heading for his last class of the day. Jillian watched him walk away then turned around to heard for her class.

She replayed their conversation in her head and couldn't stop a grin from appearing on her face. She couldn't believe Isaac actually stepped up and asked her out. She had been so worried that maybe he didn't feel the same and she was going to lose him, but instead he asked her out... or did he?

She walked into the classroom and sat down in her desk, tilting her head to the side as she thought about it a little more. He never really said the word _'date'_ and wasn't going for ice cream more of a friend thing to do?

She was so lost in her own thoughts she didn't realize Jackson had sat down behind her until he called out her name, getting her attention. She turned her head to look at him, telling him 'hey' and flashing him a small smile.

"I hope you have a swim suit in there." Jackson said, as he nodded his head toward her book bag.

"What?" Jillian asked with a confused expression on her face.

"We're meeting up at the pool today after school." Jackson answered.

"I thought try-outs didn't start until next week or something?" Jillian questioned, still feeling confused.

"They are, but our little swim meet is today." Jackson explained with a smile, reminding her of their little bet from the day before. "Unless you want to forget about the bet and just admit defeat now." He added.

"No way, I'm gonna kick your ass Whittemore." Jillian said back, then added,"I just thought you said we were gonna wait a few days."

"I did.. originally. I wanted to give you a chance to practice, but you said you didn't need it, remember?" Jackson pointed out. After she slowly nodded her head, he added,"right, so, I thought we could go ahead and do it today since I don't have lacrosse practice."

"Oh, ok, well today is perfect then." Jillian said with a smile, hoping she sounded convincing.

"Besides after swimming at Lahey's all day, I would say you had enough practice." Jackson added, as he shot her a cocky smile.

"How do you know I was at Isaac's? Are you stalking me now?" Jillian joked.

Jackson rolled his eyes and chuckled before saying,"no. I just saw you leaving his house last night and since I know you two aren't dating I figured you were over there using his pool."

He leaned closer to her to quietly add,"you know if you ever need a pool to practice in, you are more than welcomed to use mine and unlike Lahey, I will appreciate the view."

Jillian lowered her eyebrows in confusion at his comment, wondering what he meant by that, but before she could say a word, the rest of the students, like his girlfriend Lydia, walked into the room as the bell rang.

Jackson sat back in his seat and shot her a wink as he said,"see you after school, JB."

_...ooo..._

After the bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, Jillian made her way toward her car, where just that morning she had put a duffel bag with a swim suit and a change of clothes in the trunk. After the day before at Isaac's house and being stuck with no dry clothes she figured it was a smart idea to have a set, then decided to throw a swim suit and towel just in case she needed it, and now she did need it.

She grabbed the bag then after shutting the trunk, made her way back inside the school building, looking for her cousin, who she found at her locker, changing out her books.

"Hey." Jillian said, as she walked over to Erica.

"Hey. I thought I was meeting you at the car?" Erica asked confused, wondering what was going on.

"We were but something came up." Jillian said, then added,"now don't hate me, but you remember that bet I told you about? The one me and Jackson made?"

After Erica nodded her head, she continued,"well he wants to have it today. Now to be exact."

"But you can wait in the car if you want." Jillian added, as she held out her car keys. She knew Erica hated to stay after school for any reason. The sooner she was out of the building the better.

"Are you kidding?" Erica questioned, then added,"I am so watching this. I want to see you kick Jackson's ass."

"Really?" Jillian asked surprised, then added,"I thought you hated school and anything school related?"

"I do, but technically this isn't a school thing. It's a chance for me to see you take down the king of Beacon Hills High and I am not missing that." Erica said.

"Well ok then." Jillian said with a laugh, then added,"let's go to the pool."

"Actually you know what? I'll meet you there." Erica said, as she thought about someone else who might want to cheer Jillian on.

"You sure? I can wait and we can walk there together?" Jillian suggested.

"I'm sure. Everything is fine, just go." Erica said, as she turned her around and lightly pushed her down the hall.

"Ok, see you there." Jillian said laughing, as she continued to walked down the hallway and made her way toward the pool.

She walked into the girl's locker room and changed into the swim suit she brought, thankful that she thought to bring a one piece. Even if she did enjoy the attention from Jackson just a little bit, she wasn't that comfortable to prance around him in a two piece.

After getting the swim suit on she threw on a pair of shorts, grabbed a towel then made her way out of the locker room and over to the pool. She glanced around not seeing Erica, Jackson or anyone. For a brief moment she wondered if this was a trick, maybe Jackson did remember her dorky past and all the attention lately was only a trick, just some kind of a prank.

She was about to rush back into the locker room and leave until she heard someone walking up behind her and say,"I'm surprised. I didn't think you would show."

Jillian smiled when she recognized Jackson's voice, then turned around to ask,"why wouldn't I show?"

"Cause you don't want to get your ass kicked." Jackson said back.

"And it's a shame to cause ..." He began to say as he circled around her, he glanced down at her butt then added,"it's a pretty nice ass."

Jillian softly chuckled as she shook her head and pointed a finger at him as she said,"keep your eyes to yourself Whittemore."

Jackson laughed back as he walked behind her again, standing so close to her she could feel his breath on the back of her neck.

Jillian bit her bottom lip and glanced over her shoulder to look at him as she asked,"what are you doing?"

"You said to keep my eyes to myself, but you don't say anything about hands." He said softly in her ear, causing a chill down her spine.

"Jackson.." She began to warn him, planning to remind him that he had a girlfriend.

Jackson chuckled as he grabbed her hands and raised her arms above her head as he said,"relax. I'm just helping you to stretch."

"Oh. R-Right. I knew that." Jillian mumbled nervously, as she glanced at him again from over her shoulder.

Jackson locked eyes with her, leaning down toward her, making her wonder for a moment if he was going to kiss her, which she knew would be bad. Very, very bad, but for some reason she was frozen in place for a moment until she heard a door open, causing her to snap to and jump away from Jackson.

She looked over at the door and saw Erica and Isaac walking into the room. Jillian couldn't stop a smile from appearing on her face when her eyes caught Isaac's.

"Huh. This doesn't seem very fair." Jackson said over to her.

"What?" Jillian asked confused.

"You have your own little cheering section." Jackson said, then gestured around the nearly empty room before adding,"I don't have my own little cheering section."

"That's not true." Jillian said back, then added when he shot her a confused look,"you have your huge ego. There is no bigger cheering section than that."

Jillian shot him a sweet smile after her comment, causing him to chuckle and roll his eyes, then she turned around and walked over to her friends, happy they were both there to cheer her on.

"Hey, so this is what you had to go do huh?" Jillian asked, as she looked at her smiling cousin. She glanced over at Isaac as she added,"you tracked down Isaac and dragged him here."

"She didn't have to drag me here." Isaac spoke up, then added with a smile,"I wanted to be here."

"Aw, isn't that sweet? He wants to cheer you on." Erica pointed out, causing Jillian to shoot her a look. She knew what her cousin was trying to do, she was trying once again to push her and Isaac together, and she wasn't happy about it. She wanted Isaac to realize his feelings on his own, not cause Erica kept pushing them together.

"Ok, well, while you wish her luck, I'm gonna go over here." Erica said over to them, as she pointed over her shoulder then turned around and walked off, leaving the two friends alone.

Jillian looked over at Isaac and opened her mouth but before she could say a word, he spoke up and said,"before you say it, I know. I know I don't have to be here, I'm sure that I want to be here, there is no place I would rather be, I'm not leaving and you can't make me."

Jillian chuckled at his words, finding it funny that he knew what she was going to say before she even said a word. He could read her that easily.

"Ok fine. I guess you can stay." Jillian said, as she playfully rolled her eyes before stepping toward him and wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her head against his chest then whispered out,"thank you."

"You know I'm always here for you Jilly." Isaac whispered in her ear, causing her to raise her head to look at him.

The two locked eyes for a few minutes until she glanced down at his lips, flashing back to her dream the night before. She looked back up at his eyes, seeing him leaning toward her and for a moment wondered if her dream was coming true. Now that was a kiss she wanted, the one she was beginning to crave, but instead of pressing his lips against hers like she hoped, he placed them on her forehead, giving her a tender kiss.

"Good luck." Isaac said after he pulled back. He thought he saw a look of disappointment on her face and couldn't help but wonder if she was hoping he would kiss her, then realized there was no way that was possible.

Jillian flashed him a small smile then turned around to walk back over toward the pool. She had only taken a few steps before she turned back around and rushed over to him, then before she could change her mind and talk herself out of doing it. She raised on her tip toes and pressed her lips against his for a quick peek before pulling back. She could swear she almost felt a spark from her head to her toes with that one quick kiss.

"W-What was that for?" Isaac asked with wide eyes.

"I needed a little extra luck." Jillian answered with a wink, before she turned back around and walked over to Jackson as the two walked to the end of the pool and got ready to dive in.

Jillian tried to tune out everyone and everything as she swung her arms around, trying to loosen them up, as she looked down at the pool to envision the race. It was something she always did at her old school, right before she dove into the water. She ran the whole race in her mind, imagining herself swimming to the other side, flipping around underwater and begin to swim back to the other end, winning the race.

While she was deep in thought, Jackson looked at her then over where Isaac was sitting beside Erica, noticing the look on his face as he watched Jillian closely.

He smirked at the other boy then leaned toward Jillian as he said,"you know I got to admit, you two actually would look cute together."

"What?" Jillian asked, coming out of her thoughts and looked over at Jackson with a confused expression on her face.

"You and Lahey. You two look cute together." Jackson explained.

Jillian continued to look at him feeling confused, wondering where he was going with that comment or what ever made him say it. He got into position to dive in the pool then looked over at her as he added,"to bad it'll never happened."

"What?" Jillian asked, wondering why he would even say something like that.

Jackson ignored her comment and smiled, happy to see he had gotten into her head, then asked,"you ready?"

Jillian's mouth dropped open, unsure what to say, as Jackson added,"on the count of three, we'll go."

"1... 2..." Jackson begin to say, then called out,"3!"

Jillian jumped in surprise when he dove in the water, then shook her head, trying to get all the other thoughts out of her mind before jumping in after him.

As the two swam down to one end of the pool, Isaac leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs as he watched her trying to catch up with Jackson, who had a big lead against her.

"Something's wrong." Isaac mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Erica asked, as she glanced over at Isaac, confused.

"She's not giving it her all." Isaac commented, then added,"we raced over and over again yesterday and she was way faster than she is right now."

"Maybe she has something on her mind." Erica hinted. She knew her cousin did have something on her mind, but she would never betray her trust and tell Isaac, but throwing out hints didn't hurt right?

"Or maybe it's something else." Isaac said back.

"Like what?" Erica asked confused.

"Maybe she's letting him win." Isaac said disappointingly, as he looked down at his shoes until he heard Erica snort as she tried to hold back a laugh.

"What?" Isaac asked, wondering what was so funny.

"You honestly think Jilly would _'let'_ someone beat her?" Erica questioned him, then added,"you've known her all her life and you really think she would hold back and let someone win? She has never done that."

"She use to let you win in monopoly all the time." Isaac pointed out.

Erica rolled her eyes then said,"that is completely different."

"Not really. You're her best friend, her cousin, she loves you and wanted you to win, so she let you." Isaac explained, then nodded his head toward the pool and added,"Jackson is her big time crush, a crush that maybe she's not as over as she says."

"What?" Isaac asked when he saw Erica shaking her head at him.

"I always thought you knew Jilly, but now I'm starting to wonder if you know her at all." Erica stated.

"What the hell does that mean?" Isaac asked, feeling offended by her comment. "I know we are not family and might not be as close as you and her are, but I've been in her life just as long as you have, I know her and I ..."

"You what?" Erica questioned him when he paused.

He glanced down at his feet, realizing he almost slipped up and told Erica exactly how he felt about Jillian. Those three words need to be something he said to her when the time was right, although he worried the time would never be right for them.

"All I'm saying is, I know Jillian. I know her likes, her dislikes, her dreams and everything, and I also know how much she liked Jackson." Isaac explained, then added quietly,"and trust me feelings like that don't just go away."

"What she felt for Jackson was just a little school girl crush, what she feels now for..." Erica begin to say, then paused before she slipped up, then continued,"for someone else is way more than that."

Isaac looked over at Erica, wanting so badly to ask who Jillian had feelings for now but was too scared to say the words. He didn't think his heart could handle the answer.

The two looked over at the pool when they heard Jackson yell out a cheer when he finished the race, making him the winner. He pulled himself out of the pool then reached out to grab Jillian's hand to help her out of the pool.

Erica leaned toward Isaac as she said,"regardless if she likes him or not, it's plain to see he is interested in her and we all know what Jackson Whittemore wants Jackson Whittemore gets."

"Unless someone steps in and beats him to it. Someone who actually deserves to be with her." Erica added, as she shot a look over at Isaac, watching his expression as he watched Jackson joking around with Jillian as the two walked toward the locker rooms to change.

"Admit it. Just admit it JB, I beat you." Jackson said with a laugh, as the two rounded a corner, out of sight of Erica and Isaac as the two headed for separate locker rooms.

"No, I'm not admitting it." Jillian said back.

"You have to admit it and that also means you have to start being nicer to me. Those were the rules." Jackson added.

"No those rules suck, as did that race." Jillian pouted, then added,"that was not a fair race, I demand another race. This one did not count."

"Wow, you really hate to lose don't you." Jackson teased.

"I didn't lose!" Jillian snapped.

"Oh you did, but I'll make you a deal." Jackson said.

"Uh no. No, no, no. No more deals." Jillian said while shaking her head, then added,"making deals with you is like making a deal with the devil. So no, not happening again."

"You know you're already doing a bad job at being nice to me. I mean you basically just compared me to the devil." Jackson said with a laugh, as he reached out to light grab her arm, stopping her from walking.

He turned her around to face him and took a step closer to her as he added,"as I was saying, I will make you a new deal."

"Which is?" Jillian asked curious.

Jackson smirked, seeing that he has her right where he wants her, then said,"instead of you being nice to me, since it seems like it's going to be a hard thing for you to do, I will change my bet and do something else instead."

"Something like that?" Jillian asked.

"Something like this." Jackson said softly, as he leaned down toward her, pressing his lips against her for a surprisingly tender kiss.

Jillian stood frozen for a moment, she couldn't believe Jackson's lips were against hers at this very moment. This was like a scene from one of her many dreams when she was younger. She had always wished Jackson would notice her, sweep her off her feet and kiss her, but now that he actually was kissing her, she didn't feel a thing, not like she did in her dream last night kissing Isaac or for the brief moment earlier when she kissed him. That one quick kiss with him meant more than the one she was getting right now.

Besides the worst of it all, Jackson had a girlfriend and, sure, she and Lydia were never friends, but that still didn't make it right.

With that thought in mind, Jillian took a step back, breaking the kiss, as she said,"whoa, wait, Jackson. We can't... you can't do that."

"And why not?" Jackson questioned, as he pushed a lock of her damp hair behind her ear and glanced down at her lips, itching to kiss them again.

"Seriously?" Jillian asked with a surprised chuckle, then added,"are you seriously asking me that?"

When Jackson shrugged at her comment, she scoffed then said,"because you have a girlfriend and I have a..."

"You have a what?" Jackson questioned when she paused.

"An Isaac." Jillian breathed out, as she glanced down at the floor and softly smiled when he crossed her mind.

"Aw, that's cute." Jackson said sarcastically, then added,"to bad all you two will ever be is friends."

He turned to walk away, feeling pissed at being rejected, until she reached out and grabbed his arm to stop him before saying,"ok that is the second time you have made a comment like that. What are you talking about?"

Jackson turned back around to face her then said,"I'm talking about the little pathetic crush you're getting on him, when all he sees you as is a friend."

"Right, cause you're such a Isaac Lahey expert." Jillian said sarcastically, then added,"just the other day when we talked, you acted like you barely even knew who he was and now you know what he is thinking and feeling. Since when?"

"Since me and him talk about you the other day." Jackson answered matter-of-fact.

"Wait, what? You two talked about me?" Jillian asked surprised.

"Huh, you didn't know about our talk did you?" Jackson asked with an amused expression, as he folded her arms across his chest, then added,"and here I thought you two were so close you shared everything."

"What did he say?" Jillian asked shyly, already having an idea what the answer was, but she had to know.

"He said you two were only friends and that is what you two would always be. He doesn't see you as more." Jackson answered harshly.

Jillian looked down at the floor as she bit her bottom lip to hold back the tears that threatened to spill out, but she refused to cry in front of Jackson of all people.

Jackson saw the look on her face and felt a little bad for how he told her. He didn't understand what she saw in Lahey, but apparently she had really liked him and now she was crushed.

"Hey, it's ok. It's his lost." Jackson said softly, as he laid a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her, then added,"I for one think he's not that bright. I mean he is obviously crazy."

"No. I'm the crazy one." Jillian said quietly, as she reached out to wipe away a lone tear.

"I'm the crazy one for thinking..." She began to say, then paused for a moment. She raised her head to look at him, then sadly added,"for thinking something was there."

Jackson opened his mouth to say something back but before he could say a word, she held up her hand to silence him, not wanting to talk about it anymore. Instead she turned around and walked into the girl's locker room alone. Only then did she finally let the tears fall.

_...ooo..._

_a/n - hello readers! I hope you all liked the newest chapter. Don't worry this isn't the end of Jilly/Isaac. I still have a lot planned for them. Thank you to everyone reading and/or adding the story. Also big thanks to Mkay-212, randi101, DontHoldBack09, RHatch89, Lucy Greenhill, danielscarfmanxx, poorxbrokexcollegexkid, MessintheMirror, EmeraldSwan92, Undeniable Weirdness, ChasingWolves, thebelljarx and Sage Londyn for reviewing. Happy reading!_


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